Help "untrap" my btc

[platinumsteel2016]

I am truly sad today...I was down to "2 weeks" indexing left. This is what happened. For some reason I couldn't
access a website I wanted. It was like a freeze up. So consequently, I just turned off my system (Vista OS).
then I rebooted the system.  I could locate the website now. Then After trying to open the Bitcoin-qt, I received  
an error message: "Error reading from database, shutting down."

I clicked ok. Second message: " Microsoft Visual Ctt Runtime Library
"This application has requested the runtime to terminate it in an unual way. Please contact
the application's support team for more information."

I clicked ok.

Microsoft windows pop-up appeared  message:
"Bitcoin-qt.exe has stopped working. a problem caused the program to stop working correctly.
Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.

Click to close program

What do I do now (layman terms please)...Hopefully I will retreive my btc and it will take as long
as it has....Please I hope to hear from you very SOON!!!

[achow101]

You could try reindexing again. Or you could also just try a different wallet which doesn't require the full blockchain. If you go with another wallet, I recommend that you use Electrum. You will need to export your private keys from Bitcoin Core and import them to Electrum.

[platinumsteel2016]

Thank you for your quick response...If I decide to go with Electrum, can you provide me the link to download?
How do I export the private keys from the bitcoin core to electrum??

My system is old (vista OS). How long would you estimate the download of Electrum??

I hope to hear from you SOON!!!

[cr1776]

Thank you for your quick response...If I decide to go with Electrum, can you provide me the link to download?
How do I export the private keys from the bitcoin core to electrum??

My system is old (vista OS). How long would you estimate the download of Electrum??

I hope to hear from you SOON!!!

Electrum is here:
https://electrum.org/#home
(ONLY download from the official sites for any of the wallets, btw)

The Electrum sub-forum is here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=98.0

Electrum itself is small - maybe 30MB depending on the version so it is quick to download electrum itself.

As far as exporting, this has some step by step instructions:
http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/4203/how-can-i-export-the-private-key-for-an-address-from-the-satoshi-client/5933#5933 :

launch your bitcoin client
click on 'help' in the menu bar (top right)
click on 'debug window'
select the 'console' tab
type: walletpassphrase "your walletpassphrase here" 600
type: dumpprivkey [your Bitcoin address here]
this will return the private key, you can copy it now; ensure you clear your clipboard/history afterwards

[shorena]

-snip-
As far as exporting, this has some step by step instructions:
http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/4203/how-can-i-export-the-private-key-for-an-address-from-the-satoshi-client/5933#5933 :

launch your bitcoin client
click on 'help' in the menu bar (top right)
click on 'debug window'
select the 'console' tab
type: walletpassphrase "your walletpassphrase here" 600
type: dumpprivkey [your Bitcoin address here]
this will return the private key, you can copy it now; ensure you clear your clipboard/history afterwards

If I may suggest a slightly different approach. Instead of dumpprivkey [your bitcoin address here] use dumpwallet filename

This will create a file with all your private keys you can easily import into electrum. You import into electrum via:

File -> New/Restore -> pick a name -> select Restore a wallet or import keys and Standard wallet. -> put your private keys in the box (one per line remove the comments that came with the export) and follow the rest of the steps (set a password, let it sync).