Bitcoin recovery from 2011 wallet?

[bread45]

I purchased some bitcoins back in June of 2011 and transfered them from Mt.Gox to a Bitcoin QT wallet for storage.

Since, sometime in 2012, i stupidly deleted my Bitcoin directory with the blockchain including the wallet.dat file!

I have since been able to recover the original wallet.dat file from August of 2011, which is 90kb and seems to contain the transaction receipt from the Mt.Gox bitcoin withdrawl.

I have now upgraded to the most recent bitcoin-qt client (v.0.85) and updated the entire blockchain with bootstrap.dat. Bitcoin-qt is telling me i am all up to date with the network, but my balance in my wallet shows up as zero. I do have the receipt address of the Mt.Gox transaction, but nothing in my 'transactions' tab.

So, I would like to know if anyone has any advice on recovering these bitcoins and how to proceed, thanks!

[kcud_dab]

You could try launching the bitcoinqt with the "-rescan" argument, assuming that you have restored your wallet.dat in the right place.
-> https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Running_Bitcoin

It will relaunch your bitcoin client and rescan all the blockchain for missing wallet transactions

[Jeremiah2911]

Hope you manage to get that working again and extract those bitcoins.

[bread45]

I tried running the -rescan as you suggested, but still nothing is showing up afterwards (Zero balance in the wallet).

Is there any other way I can track down the intial cash-out transaction from Mt Gox to my wallet based on the address for it so I can see where the coins went?

[wtfvanity]

I tried running the -rescan as you suggested, but still nothing is showing up afterwards (Zero balance in the wallet).

Is there any other way I can track down the intial cash-out transaction from Mt Gox to my wallet based on the address for it so I can see where the coins went?

When you go into your transactions, do you see the transactions back and forth back in 2011 and then it ends up at 0?

Or, no transactions, and no balance?

[itsjoeco]

Do you still have your gox acct?

[bread45]

No transactions and no balance in my wallet. Only a receiving address with the MtGox Address.

I still have my Gox account.

[wtfvanity]

No transactions and no balance in my wallet. Only a receiving address with the MtGox Address.

I still have my Gox account.

Where did the Gox output go? What address?

If the wallet you have, has no transactions at all after a rescan, you found an unused wallet backup.

[bread45]

The Gox withdrawl went to an address that shows up in my wallet.dat file in multiple locations.

If for some reason it didn't make it to this wallet ever, is there another way to recover the Bitcoins that were withdrawn from gox if i know the transaction address?

[kcud_dab]

Look at your address on blockchain.info/address/<youraddress>
ex for 1F1tAaz5x1HUXrCNLbtMDqcw6o5GNn4xqX -> http://blockchain.info/address/1F1tAaz5x1HUXrCNLbtMDqcw6o5GNn4xqX

[DeathAndTaxes]

The Gox withdrawl went to an address that shows up in my wallet.dat file in multiple locations.

If for some reason it didn't make it to this wallet ever, is there another way to recover the Bitcoins that were withdrawn from gox if i know the transaction address?

No addresses are public knowledge.  Anyone can lookup any address from the blockchain.  Anyone could spend anyone's coins if all that is necessary is the address (hash of public key).  The private key is the secret. 

[bread45]

I see my public address on blockchain.info.

Where can i find the associated private key and how do i re-claim them if they were never downloaded to my wallet?

[Martijnvdc]

I see my public address on blockchain.info.

Where can i find the associated private key and how do i re-claim them if they were never downloaded to my wallet?

If you have the same address in your wallet, you also have the private key. (which you should NOT share on here)

If you are the owner of that address, and you see that address has a balance on blockchain.info; then you are the owner of those coins.

[bread45]

The private key is there in the output of my wallet.dat json export.

What should i do with it? Shouldn't Bitcoin-qt pick up on the private key and show my balance if it's valid?

Seems like maybe i don't have the version of the wallet.dat that fully received the transaction. In that case, what can i do?

[Sword Smith]

I see my public address on blockchain.info.

Where can i find the associated private key and how do i re-claim them if they were never downloaded to my wallet?

You can share the address but NOT the private key.

[Martijnvdc]

The private key is there in the output of my wallet.dat json export.

What should i do with it? Shouldn't Bitcoin-qt pick up on the private key and show my balance if it's valid?

Seems like maybe i don't have the version of the wallet.dat that fully received the transaction. In that case, what can i do?

In Bitcoin-qt, is that same address in your list of addresses?
I mean; the address you looked up on blockchain.info (which should have that balance you bought on mt.gox) is this address in your list of addresses in your wallet?

[jojo69]

why don't you give us the address OP (NOT the private key!) so we can look at the blockchain and see what's up

[DeathAndTaxes]

The private key is there in the output of my wallet.dat json export.
What should i do with it? Shouldn't Bitcoin-qt pick up on the private key and show my balance if it's valid?

STOP (and relax, no need to rush).
Make sure you make a backup of your wallet.dat.  Don't work on the only copy you have.
Also don't share the private key with ANYONE.

If you aren't concerned about privacy sharing the PUBLIC ADDRESS in question can help people help you.  There is no security risk by doing so but it does give up some privacy (personally I wouldn't be too worried but you need to judge that for yourself).

IF the private key for the address which has funds is in your wallet.dat then you have funds.  Don't lose it, don't share it.  The client may be "confused" or you may have done something unusual/unexpected (like have a different wallet.dat being loaded but regardless if you have the private key you have the funds*.  Everything else can be fixed.

See DC post above for some next steps ^


*To any noobs following along.  This is often a common misconception.  A wallet files doesn't ever contain ANY Bitcoins.  All the Bitcoins are on all nodes all over the world that make up the Bitcoin network.  Yes "your coins" are on tens of thousands of strangers computers.   The wallet file contains the KEYS which let you and only you spend those coins.  If you have the key you have access to the coins.  If you don't have the key you don't have access to the coins.  All other issues, weirdness, software errors can be fixed other than losing the private key.  That can never be fixed.  No key, no way to ever spend the coins.  They are still there, you can look at them, you can wave but nobody can ever spend them.

Seems like maybe i don't have the version of the wallet.dat that fully received the transaction. In that case, what can i do?

This is a non-issue see above.  Lets make sure you actually have the correct wallet.dat installed and that wallet.dat has the private key for the address which has funds.   See DC post above ^.

If you do then GREAT NEWS there are a lot of ways to recover your funds.  Make sure you keep a backup (hint: the copy you are actively working with isn't a backup) and don't share the private key.

The two easiest ways is to try to either resync your client or export the private key into another wallet (blockchain.info would be simplest) but do what DC suggested first.

[bread45]

I have tried both resyncing my bitcoin client and uploading what i think is the private key to a blockchain.info wallet i created. Neither of which show any record of the bitcoins.

I think it's safe to assume now, that the wallet.dat backup i'm using doesn't actually contain the correct private key, nor do i recall it ever showing up in my initial Bitcoin-qt wallet when i set it up 2 years ago.

Where can I look to retreive the actual transaction private key? Are they lost forever?

[jojo69]

you been writing to this hard drive in the mean time?