Bitcoin Classic Wallet Lost BTC after Power Supply Issue

[NBe]

Hi there,


I must admit, I am an amateur Bitcoin Classic Wallet user and until today, I was not aware that they had stopped updating it. In effect, I would welcome any and all advice.

My PC power supply died in September and I had another hard drive added to my build. The hard drive which I ran Bitcoin Classic no longer was the main one, but the programme still allows me to run it off of a storage drive. The problem is that the BTC balance has been reset and now sits at 0. Also, the wallet itself is 8 years behind, whereas it was fully updated before.

I tried to move my BTC to a new wallet via the .dat file that I have saved. The new new wallet I tried and installed (on my main hard drive this time) is called Electrum. Because back in 2017 (i.e., when I set up my Bitcoin Classic Wallet) seeds were not being used yet (at least not by the wallet I was using), I could not add the data during the Electrum config process via that option. Instead, I set up a fresh Electrum wallet and tried to add the .dat file via file -> open. When I tried that I had a UTF8 error come up.


Basically, if you can, I would like help with either of those options:

1. How can I add my BTC to my old Bitcoin Classic wallet so that I can carry out transactions again? When I try file -> open and select my back up .dat file, it says that the payment request file is too large
2. How can I resolve a UTF8 error on Electrum using the file -> open technique I described.


Looking forward to your reply and thanking you very much in advance.

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[LoyceV]

I'm confused: are you talking about Bitcoin Classic (BXC), or Bitcoin Core? The former is virtually worthless, so I assume it's the latter.

The problem is that the BTC balance has been reset and now sits at 0. Also, the wallet itself is 8 years behind, whereas it was fully updated before.

It sounds like your software lost access to it's blockchain, probably because you've changed the drive's location.

I tried to move my BTC to a new wallet via the .dat file that I have saved. The new new wallet I tried and installed (on my main hard drive this time) is called Electrum.

Electrum can't access Bitcoin Core's wallet.dat directly. That's probably what causes the UTF8 error.

1. How can I add my BTC to my old Bitcoin Classic wallet so that I can carry out transactions again? When I try file -> open and select my back up .dat file, it says that the payment request file is too large
2. How can I resolve a UTF8 error on Electrum using the file -> open technique I described.

Let's take 2 steps back: first, make a backup of your wallet.dat. After moving your drive's location, your Bitcoin Core installation may have created a new wallet.dat. You'll need your original. Make a backup on a USB stick, then make another backup (on another device).

After this, you have 2 options: either run Bitcoin Core, let it download 300+ GB (this can take a few days depending on your computer), and your balance should be up to date again.
As an alternative, you can export your private keys from Bitcoin Core, and import them into Electrum. This is faster, but involves more risks.

If your wallet is from 2017, you probably own Forkcoins too. The values in my link are outdated (it's much lower now), but after securing your Bitcoin you might want to look into that too. But first: make sure you know what you're doing so you don't risk losing your bitcoin over this.

[Csmiami]

After this, you have 2 options: either run Bitcoin Core, let it download 300+ GB (this can take a few days depending on your computer), and your balance should be up to date again.
As an alternative, you can export your private keys from Bitcoin Core, and import them into Electrum. This is faster, but involves more risks.

I've been out of the forum for some months, so I may have lost a bit of memory regarding this stuff, BUT, for what I seem to recall, there is a little problem when exporting private keys of old (like very old) Core wallets. I may have to do some research to fully remember what exactly it was, but I think it was close to the lines of the wallet not being created using a HD seed, and thus, you needed to know exactly in what address you had the coins and then search the key to that address inside the document, because there was no master private key available (might be something similar, or I may be slipping a lot).

Anyway, if this doesn't ring a bell to you, or anyone else reading this, I'll be searching for it

[Pmalek]

It sounds like your software lost access to it's blockchain, probably because you've changed the drive's location.

That is most probably why he can't view his balance since he no longer has the needed blockchain records.

@NBe
When you recover your coins and move them to a new wallet, you can also use this site (http://www.findmycoins.ninja/) to check what fork coins you can claim. This is of secondary importance, so make sure you follow what LoyceV described before burdening yourself with forks.

[HCP]

My PC power supply died in September and I had another hard drive added to my build. The hard drive which I ran Bitcoin Classic no longer was the main one, but the programme still allows me to run it off of a storage drive. The problem is that the BTC balance has been reset and now sits at 0. Also, the wallet itself is 8 years behind, whereas it was fully updated before.

You should be able to configure the Bitcoin "Classic" (do you mean Bitcoin Core? ) to simply look at the files in their "new" location. No doubt, the drive letter has changed if it is no longer the "main drive".

But all your old blockchain data (and old wallet.dat) is probably still available on the old drive if it wasn't wiped/formatted. You just need to configure the "datadir" option when starting Bitcoin Core.

What OS are you running? Windows or Linux?
What version of Bitcoin Core are you running?

[bob123]

[...] for what I seem to recall, there is a little problem when exporting private keys of old (like very old) Core wallets. [...] I think it was close to the lines of the wallet not being created using a HD seed, and thus, you needed to know exactly in what address you had the coins and then search the key to that address [...]

You are right with that. Old core wallets have not been generated deterministically.

But exporting the private keys without an internet connection and a synced DB (since therefore you could just check which address contains the BTC), is still possible.
You just have to export all private keys in the wallet, and not just the ones where you assume your coins are.

Electrum doesn't have a problem with importing a few hundred private keys. It gets problematic when there are thousands of keys/addresses tho.