One BTC in backed-up wallet: How to restore?

[jim890]

I had a BTC wallet which was on a computer which had a hard-drive crash about 1.5 years ago. (fortunately, it was backed up, I think, on an external backup drive.) I believe it was a QT wallet.  I need to know how to restore it.  Do I initialize a new wallet, with a new password?  Then, how do I transfer the BTC to the new wallet?  What files from the backup do I need? I know I'll need the password, which I have.

[iram66680]

Assuming you're using windows, download and install Bitcoin Core, run it. Close it and go to %appdata%/Bitcoin and place the wallet.dat inside. If you want to wait for it to synchronized, just wait and don't do the command.

If you have password, use

Code:

walletpassphrase (PASSWORD) 600

to unlock the wallet and use

Code:

dumpprivkey (Bitcoin address)

to dump the private key. Next, you can import it to any SPV client and have your  Bitcoins in a few minutes.

[achow101]

With bitcoin qt, find the data directory and replace the wallet.dat file in there with your backup. Make sure that the backup when copied in is also named wallet.dat. if the folder didn't exist, make it.

[jim890]

I tried to set up a new wallet, but I got the message after about 20 minutes of running:
    "Bitcoin Error
     Error:  A fatal internal error occurred, see debug.log for details."

Does not give me much confidence!

Then, I tried uninstalling Bitcoin Core; Reinstalled it.  Then ran it, but the same error message occurred, this time immediately.

[iram66680]

I tried to set up a new wallet, but I got the message after about 20 minutes of running:
    "Bitcoin Error
     Error:  A fatal internal error occurred, see debug.log for details."

Does not give me much confidence!

Then, I tried uninstalling Bitcoin Core; Reinstalled it.  Then ran it, but the same error message occurred, this time immediately.

Reinstalling it doesn't delete the data directory AFAIK. Making sure that you have a backup, try running Bitcoin Core with the -reindex flag from cmd. Eg.

Code:

"Path/To/Location/bitcoin-qt" -reindex

. Replace the directory with the directory to where you installed bitcoin core in, usually in program files. If it doesn't work, post the debug log.

[achow101]

I tried to set up a new wallet, but I got the message after about 20 minutes of running:
    "Bitcoin Error
     Error:  A fatal internal error occurred, see debug.log for details."

Does not give me much confidence!

Then, I tried uninstalling Bitcoin Core; Reinstalled it.  Then ran it, but the same error message occurred, this time immediately.

Post your debug.log.

[jim890]

Hey, I can't even find the DIRECTORY where my bitcoin stuff is!    Let alone my debug log!!  And for a moment, I couldn't even see any way to reply to these messages.  Then I tried to relogin again.  <GRRRRR>  Microsoft sucks.

Okay, I finally found the directory where the Bitcoin stuff is.  But I don't know where the debug log is.  And I don't know how to replace the text in
 "Path/To/Location/bitcoin-qt" -reindex
with the system-specific detail.   Question:  is "program files" a proper directory name?  Where do I present the modified text shown above?  Windows ISN'T transparent.

[ranochigo]

Hey, I can't even find the DIRECTORY where my bitcoin stuff is!    Let alone my debug log!!  And for a moment, I couldn't even see any way to reply to these messages.  Then I tried to relogin again.  <GRRRRR>  Microsoft sucks.

Okay, I finally found the directory where the Bitcoin stuff is.  But I don't know where the debug log is.  And I don't know how to replace the text in
 "Path/To/Location/bitcoin-qt" -reindex
with the system-specific detail.   Question:  is "program files" a proper directory name?  Where do I present the modified text shown above?  Windows ISN'T transparent.

If you haven't changed the default data directory of Bitcoin Core, your debug log is located in %appdata%/Bitcoin. After entering the folder, you should see debug.log and you can open it with any text editor. Pasting the last few lines should be enough.

Which version did you install? 64Bit or 32Bit? Most of the time, you need to go to C:\Program Files\Bitcoin to see the Bitcoin-qt.exe.
Hence, go to search box, search for cmd and enter

Code:

"C:\Program Files\Bitcoin\Bitcoin-qt.exe" -reindex

. If it doesn't work, try

Code:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\BitcoinBitcoin-qt.exe" -reindex

[jim890]

Well, I tried putting "C:\Program Files\Bitcoin\Bitcoin-qt.exe" -reindex   into a 'search box'.  I got back a Google Search set of results.

Then, it occurred to me that I don't know what you meant by "search for cmd and enter"

Then, I decided to put   %appdata%/Bitcoin   into a search box and looked for it.   Nothing useful happened.

Then, I realized I also don't know what you meant by "After entering the folder, you should see debug.log and you can open it with any text editor. Pasting the last few lines should be enough."

[ranochigo]

Well, I tried putting "C:\Program Files\Bitcoin\Bitcoin-qt.exe" -reindex   into a 'search box'.  I got back a Google Search set of results.

Then, it occurred to me that I don't know what you meant by "search for cmd and enter"

Then, I decided to put   %appdata%/Bitcoin   into a search box and looked for it.   Nothing useful happened.

Then, I realized I also don't know what you meant by "After entering the folder, you should see debug.log and you can open it with any text editor. Pasting the last few lines should be enough."

I guess I didn't phrased it well. Okay.

For any version of Windows, there should be a search bar of some kind and search cmd on it. Next, you should see a black box coming up. Key in the entire string there. E.g., for windows 10, http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-open-elevated-command-prompt-in-windows-10/. Otherwise, go to all programs and then accessories if you're using windows 7 and below and press command prompt.

Open the file manager (the window you get when you click on a folder) and key in %appdata%/Bitcoin and you should see a debug.log file. Open it or use any text editor, e.g. notepad and copy out the text inside.

[jim890]

You said, "I guess I didn't phrased it well. Okay.
For any version of Windows, there should be a search bar of some kind and search cmd on it. Next, you should see a black box coming up. Key in the entire string there. E.g., for windows 10, http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-open-elevated-command-prompt-in-windows-10/. Otherwise, go to all programs and then accessories if you're using windows 7 and below and press command prompt.
Open the file manager (the window you get when you click on a folder) and key in %appdata%/Bitcoin and you should see a debug.log file. Open it or use any text editor, e.g. notepad and copy out the text inside."

I know about the Google search bar; I've used it thousands of times.   I enter the text    cmd    on it, and click on the magnifying glass (search) icon.  The result?  Google search reports there are 183,000,000 search results.

Once I do that, I don't see "a black box coming up".  So I cannot proceed further.

[achow101]

Click on the start button and you should see a search bar. Type in that search bar

Code:

cmd.exe

You should see something that shows up in the start menu that has the name of cmd.exe. click that and a black window should show up. That is the command prompt. Type in that the command from above.

To find the data directory, open up Windows explorer. That one is the file browser, also known as the icon labeled as My Computer. At the top, there should also be a bar. Click on it and type into that

Code:

%appdata%/Bitcoin

That should take you to the bitcoin data directory and you should see the Debug.log there. Double click it and copy and paste everything in it to a post here.