Can't retrieve funds onto my bitcoin program

[Phil1980]

Hello,

I bought some bitcoins from a quite reliable dealer, unfortunately my computer developed some problems before I could retrieve the money, the bitcoin program wouldn't start anymore. So I installed the bitcoin software on another computer, copied the wallet.dat file from the old computer into the directory of the new computer, so now when I open the bitcoin program I have the same address as before. Unfortunately when I run the bitcoin program it says I still have 0.00 bitcoins, even though I purchased over 100 bitcoins. I e-mailed the guy telling him I couldn't retrieve the funds, he showed me on the website blockexplorer.com that the transaction had actually taken place. How can I retrieve the funds, using the bitcoin software or some other software, so I actually have them and can use them for purchasing things?

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[theymos]

In the location where wallet.dat is located, delete all of the files except wallet.dat.

If you're using the latest version of Bitcoin, you can also run Bitcoin with the -rescan switch instead.

The problem is that Bitcoin already processed the blocks containing your transaction, and it doesn't look at them again for new transactions when you replace wallet.dat unless you do one of the things I mentioned.

[Phil1980]

OK, thanks for the quick reply, I'll try that, how do you rescan by the way? Do you have to type in some commands? I'm not such a computer expert and I use windows 7.

[theymos]

OK, thanks for the quick reply, I'll try that, how do you rescan by the way? Do you have to type in some commands? I'm not such a computer expert and I use windows 7.

Close Bitcoin. Go to start -> run (or press WinKey+R). Type this:

Code:

%PROGRAMFILES%\Bitcoin\bitcoin.exe -rescan

If it works, Bitcoin will take a long time to open, and the transactions should appear when it does open. This feature was introduced in the very recent 0.3.20 release, so you might not have it.

[CCCMikey]

The BitCoin client could really do with some prettying up and UI enhancements. One-click Backup / Restore of Wallet to USB for a start...

[Phil1980]

BTW, your advice worked, after deleting all files except for the wallet file and reloading I have received the bitcoins now, thank you very much.