Wallet Question

[NLTBC]

I downloaded Bitcoin Wallet version v0.8.1-beta last month.
It also says this program uses Qt version 4.8.3

I had several transactions that showed up in my wallet with no problems.
I then encypted the wallet with a password of my choosing.

I then had some computer troubles which required me to restore my laptop hard drive to the factory defaults.

Before doing this, I saved the entire Bitcoin program & folder to an external hard drive.
I also performed the backup wallet process and also saved this to the external hard drive as a .dat file.
I also took a screen shot of the open Bitcoin program showing all the addresses and labels under "Receive Coins"
I have a record of each of my transactions with the amounts that were sent and the addresses they were sent to.

After performing the restore, I transferred the Bitcoin folder & program back to the computer and opened it.

It had to process almost 300,000 blocks which took several hours, but when done, all my transactions and wallet balance have vanished.

Is there a way for me to add my Bitcoins back to the wallet or am I screwed and they're all gone?

Thanks for the help.

[Panth]

Hm I am a newbie as well so I don't have an exact answer for you but I am definitely curious as to how this ends up being solved. As far as I know you just need to move the backup wallet.dat to Appdata\Roaming\Bitcoin ( for windows vista, 7, and 8 ) then run the client with the -rescan option. If that doesn't work I'm out of ideas

[trace666]

if you have a backup of your original wallet.dat, try copying it over the wallet.dat that the newly installed client uses.

[raze]

Have you tried just importing the private keys?

[Foxpup]

Close Bitcoin-Qt if it's running, copy your wallet backup to %APPDATA%\Bitcoin\wallet.dat, then restart Bitcoin-Qt. It is not normally necessary to run with the -rescan option, it should "just work" after you copy the wallet.dat file over.

[superresistant]

So you lost everything ?
I would be so pissed-off

[raze]

So you lost everything ?
I would be so pissed-off

Not lost, just misplaced.

[FaradayC]

Running the old client?

[NLTBC]

Thanks for the responses. 

There seems to be no "Import" option, that was my first impulse but it just isn't there.

I am unable to open & view the backup wallet in the .dat format, that shouldn't make a difference if I can get the new wallet to read or somehow accept it.

To the suggestions that I copy my backup wallet and move it, I don't understand where exactly to move it to.
I get nothing when I try to find the Appdata locations suggested.
I've looked in the Bitcoin folder in my Program Files (x86) but can't see any .dat file which would be my clue as to where to paste it.

Obviously I'm no computer wiz, but I think I have a basic understanding, specifics would be appreciated.

Thanks

[NLTBC]

As far as I know you just need to move the backup wallet.dat to Appdata\Roaming\Bitcoin ( for windows vista, 7, and 8 ) then run the client with the -rescan option.

OK, I figured it out, how to do what you suggested and it worked.  No need to use the rescan option. 
SUCCESS!!!
Thanks a bunch!

[Gabi]

Yup, the program just need wallet.dat in the roaming/bitcoin folder