Help Please, did I lose all? - SOLVED

[navelgazer]

Hi guys!

A few days ago my windows broke in a way I couldnt recover (usual thing on this fucking OS) and I had my whole block chain synchronized on the default folders. I bought some bitcoins more than 3 years ago as I watched the price rise and rise. I had backups from that year too (2013) I dont recall 100% If I made any transactions in the meantime. All I know is that I have my wallet.dat backup and some long passwords on my keepass database (A 30 charachters password and another 20 char pass)

Now I've installed bitcoin on a different drive and finished synchronizing today, copied my old backup wallet.dat on the data folder but still my balance shows 0.00, also tried to import my wallet to https://blockchain.info/es/wallet/import-wallet to see if I could recover but I drag my file to the box, enter the captcha code throbber goes around for a second and nothing happens :|

Also executed a rescan from console "bitcoin-qt.exe -rescan" it took a while but nothing changed.

Is there anything else that I could try?

Thanks

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[steven0021]

Are you 100% sure that you have the correct wallet.dat? You should be able to see your transaction history from bitcoin core. See if you recognize all of them and if there's any recent move.

[achow101]

Make sure that you are copying the backup to the right place. Right click the wallet.dat file in the data directory and click on properties. Make sure that the "Created" field has a date that makes sense for that wallet to have been created (e.g. 2013).

If you have made any transactions between when that backup was made and when you imported it to Bitcoin Core, it is possible that the backup does not contain the private keys that control your Bitcoin. Since Bitcoin Core is not a deterministic wallet yet, you need to have made a backup of the wallet every 100 transactions.

Do you see any transaction history?

Find an address that you know should have been on that wallet. Then go to Help > Debug Window and click the Console tab. Then in the box at the bottom, type

Code:

dumpprivkey <address>

where <address> is the address that you know should be on that wallet. This will give you the private key for that address. DO NOT SHARE IT WITH ANYONE. If you do get the private key, it should be in black text and begin with a "5", "K", or "L". If you get an error in red text, then that means the address is not in the wallet and you have the wrong wallet.

If you do have the wrong wallet, try copying the backup in again.

You should also try getting the wallet from the windows drive. Make a live CD or USB of another OS such as Ubuntu. Then boot from that on the windows pc and try to access the Windows hard drive. Then pull the wallet.dat file from there.

[crairezx20]

Maybe you are backup a wrong wallet.dat.. its should be there if youalready tried to install it in your wallet..
Do you remember what address do you use when you are depositing?

[navelgazer]

Make sure that you are copying the backup to the right place. Right click the wallet.dat file in the data directory and click on properties. Make sure that the "Created" field has a date that makes sense for that wallet to have been created (e.g. 2013).

If you have made any transactions between when that backup was made and when you imported it to Bitcoin Core, it is possible that the backup does not contain the private keys that control your Bitcoin. Since Bitcoin Core is not a deterministic wallet yet, you need to have made a backup of the wallet every 100 transactions.

Do you see any transaction history?

Find an address that you know should have been on that wallet. Then go to Help > Debug Window and click the Console tab. Then in the box at the bottom, type

Code:

dumpprivkey <address>

where <address> is the address that you know should be on that wallet. This will give you the private key for that address. DO NOT SHARE IT WITH ANYONE. If you do get the private key, it should be in black text and begin with a "5", "K", or "L". If you get an error in red text, then that means the address is not in the wallet and you have the wrong wallet.

If you do have the wrong wallet, try copying the backup in again.

You should also try getting the wallet from the windows drive. Make a live CD or USB of another OS such as Ubuntu. Then boot from that on the windows pc and try to access the Windows hard drive. Then pull the wallet.dat file from there.

Weird thing is that I dont see any transactions at all. I've checked the "created" field and it shows a date from 5 minutes ago. "Last modified" field shows the correct date of 2013. Seems like if it wasnt there at all from the Bitcoin-qt client's perspective. Also I remember I've encrypted this wallet and the "lock" icon doesnt even appear on Bitcoin-qt

[NeuroticFish]

First make sure you have the backup for the correct wallet.
Second, make sure the blockchain has synced, that takes a lot.
And third, make sure you copied your backup in the right place  (and bitcoin client was stopped).

[achow101]

Weird thing is that I dont see any transactions at all. I've checked the "created" field and it shows a date from 5 minutes ago. Seems like if it wasnt there at all from the Bitcoin-qt client's perspective. Also I remember I've encrypted this wallet and the "lock" icon doesnt even appear on Bitcoin-qt

That means that you did not put the backup in the right place, or it is the wrong backup file since the file there was created today.

[navelgazer]

That means that you did not put the backup in the right place, or it is the wrong backup file since the file there was created today.

I pasted the wallet here C:\Program Files\Bitcoin and it's the last backup I have what would make it the wrong file?

Could this has something to do with the blockchain being on a different place than by default? its on a different drive than bitcoins installation?

I remember that before the wallet was on the C:\Users\USER\AppData\Roaming folder but now there is nothing in there

[steven0021]

That means that you did not put the backup in the right place, or it is the wrong backup file since the file there was created today.

I pasted the wallet here C:\Program Files\Bitcoin and it's the last backup I have what would make it the wrong file?

Could this has something to do with the blockchain being on a different place than by default? its on a different drive than bitcoins installation?

I remember that before the wallet was on the C:\Users\USER\AppData\Roaming folder but now there is nothing in there

The correct place for wallet.dat is where your data files are. The default is appdata\roaming\bitcoin for windows but looks like you're using custom directory.

[achow101]

That means that you did not put the backup in the right place, or it is the wrong backup file since the file there was created today.

I pasted the wallet here C:\Program Files\Bitcoin and it's the last backup I have what would make it the wrong file?

Could this has something to do with the blockchain being on a different place than by default? its on a different drive than bitcoins installation?

I remember that before the wallet was on the C:\Users\USER\AppData\Roaming folder but now there is nothing in there

You put it in the wrong place. It belongs in C:\Users\USER\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin. If there is no folder there after running Bitcoin Core, then you are using a custom data directory. If you don't know what it is, go to Help > Debug Window and click the button to open the debug.log file. Look for where it says your data directory is and then put the wallet.date file in that folder.

[navelgazer]

Thanks a lot knightdk! opening the log give me the location of the .dat file which wasnt on the installation folder.

Problem was that when you choose a custom installation folder, the .dat file goes where the blockchain is. I had bitcoin client installed in one place and the blockchain on a different drive. That was it, now I've recovered my beautiful BTCs!