quick advice please

[reg]

one of my recent transactions showed a weird sign (probably due to a power outage whilst updating) it was a box with arrows in and out? a small deduction on my balance and n/a  in subject?. I did a rescan and expected transactions to appear as it neared completion? its been running a few days and although nearly complete (less than 10000 blks to go nothing shows? yet I have been using client for nearly a year? I am now getting worried I have corrupted my wallet.dat by doing a rescan yet it shows 148 kb's any ideas please (I am not very technical) reg

[Severian]

It sounds like you sent a transaction to yourself and the network deducted a fee for it. Scared the hell out of me the first time it happened.

[reg]

I probably should have posted in technical discussion but does rescan wait untill completed to show transactions? I have never done it so I do not know?, reg

[smtp]

I did a rescan and expected transactions to appear as it neared completion? its been running a few days and although nearly complete (less than 10000 blks to go nothing shows? yet I have been using client for nearly a year?

My advice: if it was a recent transaction (as you wrote), you will need to rescan nearly all the remaining (less than 10000) blocks. Unfortunately this could last still a day or more with your old client.
Thus: fetch the current 0.8.0-bitcoin-qt-client and use this in parallel for rescan (use option -bootstrap accessing all downloaded blocks) in an own directory (or even independent computer). This should be much quicker. After this you can copy your old wallet.dat into the new 0.8.0-.bitcoin directory and check it for your transactions.

smtp

[reg]

smtp

thanks for info. however it is beyond my capability- my son loaded linux and qt 4.7.3 for me and it was fine. however I am abroad and handling the program has added to my problem I think. I typed in -rescan after the word bitcoin in the client and it started from scratch. I just don't know how it could use a new wallet.dat if the one in the rescan shows data but no transactions? so I will let it complete and see what I have?. I also can't find how to copy the wallet .dat from my memory stick? do I click and drag or copy and paste? its this simple stuff I am not doing properly I think. reg.

[smtp]

smtp

thanks for info. however it is beyond my capability- my son loaded linux and qt 4.7.3 for me and it was fine. however I am abroad and handling the program has added to my problem I think. I typed in -rescan after the word bitcoin in the client and it started from scratch. I just don't know how it could use a new wallet.dat if the one in the rescan shows data but no transactions? so I will let it complete and see what I have?. I also can't find how to copy the wallet .dat from my memory stick? do I click and drag or copy and paste? its this simple stuff I am not doing properly I think. reg.

Sorry, the last depends on your actual Linux-distribution or better its user-interface. Yes, I really had assumed you know how to handle the basics of file-management. Like searching for files, or moving/deleting/copying/listing them - whereever they are (maybe you need to mount your memory stick first?). I don't know what wallet.dat your current running (rescanning) client uses. BTW: A helpful info also might be in general to tell precise version no of the software (bitcoin-qt) you uses -- in the case you repeat your case in the technical forum.
smtp

[Stephen Gornick]

although nearly complete (less than 10000 blks to go nothing shows?

Until your client is caught up, nothing else matters.

What might work for you is to import your wallet.dat into a Blockchain.info/wallet and then you can see your current balance (and transact) from there.

 - https://blockchain.info/wallet/import-wallet