I installed QT on a computer for the first time, I have never used the software so don't know how it's supposed to work. I don't have a wallet.dat file at all - no original and no backup - am I supposed to create one? Where does it go and what do I put in it?
On Blockchain explorer I'm entering the public key which corresponds to my pass phrase which is for my brain wallet which contains my bitcoin balance.
Thanks
I'm not sure I got that 100%, but if I understood right...
Get the private key from your brainwallet account - (paste your passphrase and copy the result from "Private Key" field.
Then, in your QT client, go to Help=>Debug(1rst entry), and type in:
importprivkey <your_brain_wallet_private_key> <any_name>
where <your_brain_wallet_private_key> = the "Private Key" field content on brainwallet site
and <any_name> = how you want this address to show up in your client (it will never be shared in any transaction, so you can put "CatKiller" or "AsianLover")
Once you've done that, I suggest that you create a new address in QT client, send all your funds to it, and encrypt the wallet (Settings=>Encrypt wallet(1st entry)) with a new passphrase, and backup this encrypted wallet to a secure location.