Sent Credit To Old Bitcoin Address

[Mucalytic]

Hi I have bought bitcoins from bittylicious.com and had them sent to the bitcoin address I used for previous transactions.

However, I had to reinstall the Bitcoin Core software and I can't seem to get my Bitcoins.

Not sure what I'm doing wrong - I copied my Bitcoin Address from Bittylicious to the clipboard, went to File->Sending Addresses and pasted it in but it's still saying I have zero funds.

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

[Lauda]

This is not how you proceed. You need one of the following things:
1) The original wallet.dat file (found in the Bitcoin directory)
2) The private key of the address.

In case that you have access to number two, these are the steps that you need to take:
1) Open up Bitcoin Core
2) Select Help (to the right of Settings)
3) Select Debug Window
4) Select Console
5) If you encrypted your wallet, unlock it by entering walletpassphrase "YourLongPassphrase" 600 next to the > input box
6) Next to the > input box type importprivkey <bitcoinprivkey>
In case that you've deleted your previously wallet.dat file and do not have access to your private key, then it is most likely that your coins are gone forever.

[Mucalytic]

Ah!

All I have is my old btc address. I don't think I ever had a private key!

I guess I lost all of my cash... D:

Thanks a lot for your help. I guess I'll have to be a lot more careful next time.

[Lauda]

All I have is my old btc address. I don't think I ever had a private key!

Think about what you initially wanted to do. You wanted to import a Bitcoin address into a wallet to get your money. Bitcoin addresses are public. By this logic, anyone could import your money. This is why private keys exist.

I guess I lost all of my cash... D:

Most likely.

I guess I'll have to be a lot more careful next time.

Make sure you back up your wallet.dat before uninstalling the client. Actually, make sure you back it up every once in a while.

[odolvlobo]

Ah!
All I have is my old btc address. I don't think I ever had a private key!
I guess I lost all of my cash... D:
Thanks a lot for your help. I guess I'll have to be a lot more careful next time.

Unfortunately, it's too late for you, but for everyone else:

Encrypt and back up your wallet

[teddy5145]

Ah!

All I have is my old btc address. I don't think I ever had a private key!

I guess I lost all of my cash... D:

Thanks a lot for your help. I guess I'll have to be a lot more careful next time.

Try to use recuva, you might still able to recover your wallet.dat if it's not too late
Also try to use electrum wallet next time, because electrum has an option to restore your wallet with 12 words seed
So sorry for your loss