Receiving Bitcoin Address disappeared while syncing blockchain

[bitcoincraze]

Hello, I'm in a state of panic right now. I had recently decided to transfer my bitcoin from an online wallet (Blockchain.info) into a local wallet(Bitcoin Core).

I had send bitcoin to one of the pre-generated receiving addresses, prior to syncing up with the block chain. After the client had finally finished, the receiving address was no longer listed.

I can view the transaction and the address on blockchain.info, and tried to use dumpprivkey on in using the debug window, but it said the private key for the address isn't known.

I'm not sure if this is relevant, but during the block chain syncing process, my SSD ran out of space, so I followed a tutorial to use my secondary HDD which has a larger capacity. The instructions told me to paste "-datadir=F:<filename>" into the target field of the program.
Please help.

Edit: I've already checked both directories for a wallet.dat file. The wallet.dat file is only present in the 2nd auxiliary directory, my HDD.

[cr1776]

Is the old wallet.dat present in a backup? (Assuming it really isn't anywhere on the drive.)

[bitcoincraze]

I had backed up the wallet.dat during the syncing process, but it doesn't have it.

[DannyHamilton]

To start with, we need to know what operating system you are using.  Bitcoin stores the data in different locations depending on the operating system.

Next, it is important to store a backup of your wallet in a secure place.  It seems you may not have done that.  Regardless of whether you are able to recover these bitcoins or not, please remember to create proper backups of your wallet in the future.

The original wallet (when running on your SSD) would have had a wallet.dat file somewhere.  That file will have all the information needed to recover access to your bitcoins.  As long as you didn't delete the file, it should still be in the same place that it was.  Setting a "datadir" parameter would not delete the file, it would just make it so that the wallet software was no longer looking in the right place for the file.

[bitcoincraze]

I GOT IT!!!

I had made backed up my wallet multiple times. During one of those times, I figured I might as well just copy the entire bitcoin directory. Turns out the correct wallet.dat was in the copied file, not the backed up wallet.

Thanks everyone for your help! This 3 day struggle has been a big lesson for me.

[cr1776]

I GOT IT!!!

I had made backed up my wallet multiple times. During one of those times, I figured I might as well just copy the entire bitcoin directory. Turns out the correct wallet.dat was in the copied file, not the backed up wallet.

Thanks everyone for your help! This 3 day struggle has been a big lesson for me.

Good news. Always backup. 😀