Bitcoincore has lost blockchain/wallet?

[Canna78]

Sorry in advance i clearly have no idea what I'm doing.

I had made a wallet on bitcoincore and downloaded the blockchain. Everything was fine for a couple months.. went a couple weeks without opening the client and now its asking me to redownload the blockchain and no wallet is linked.

Is there a way to link Bitcoincore to my wallet and blockchain download so i can recover my wallet..

Both Bitcoincore, wallet.dat and block chain are on a external driver

Seriously new to all of this and would like to learn. Thanks   

[AdolfinWolf]

Should probably give a bit more info, I assume you're using the GUI?

If you don't open the wallet for a couple weeks it seems logical to me that it might show that it is out of sync, because it is.

Both Bitcoincore, wallet.dat and block chain are on a external driver

I assume you didn't change the paths inbetween now and when you succesfully used the wallet for a couple months?

A command-line approach (what I would do) would be to first check if your bitcoin core instance is synced. then load the wallet.dat and check the balance.

So start bitcoind from command line using whatever bitcoin.conf or startup options concerning your paths to your external drive,

Code:

bitcoin-cli -rpcuser=<user>-rpcpassword=<pass> getblockchaininfo

...

Code:

bitcoin-cli loadwallet "test.dat"

Hm. This is probably not ideal for a beginner.

What you should do is back up your wallet.dat to a secure location before you do anything. If nothing works out you can always load the wallet.dat in a fresh core download and export your private keys to your inputs manually to another wallet such as electrum.

Load your wallet into unsynced bitcoin core > console > start generating receive addresses / raw change addresses > export private keys int electrum?
I assume this process is deterministic and at some point you should've exhausted all used addresses? Someone should comment on this. There's probably an easier solution to your problem though, so maybe just ignore this post.

[LoyceV]

What you should do is back up your wallet.dat to a secure location before you do anything.

^^ Start with this ^^

Both Bitcoincore, wallet.dat and block chain are on a external driver

It sounds like your Bitcoin Core configuration somehow lost where you stored the files. The fix (and file locations) will depend on what computer system you're using, so please start with that.

[philipma1957]

And how much coin is in the wallet?

you do not need to be exact.

say it is under 0.01 btc

or over 0.01 btc


reasoning is 0.01 x 62000 is 620 usd which sucks to lose but should not be the end of the world for you


while 0.1 or 0.5 is 6200 to 31000 usd which make it all the more important to understand what you are doing.

There are hardware wallets like the trezor.io which are easier to use. They are pretty safe.

[Canna78]

And how much coin is in the wallet?

you do not need to be exact.

say it is under 0.01 btc

or over 0.01 btc


reasoning is 0.01 x 62000 is 620 usd which sucks to lose but should not be the end of the world for you


while 0.1 or 0.5 is 6200 to 31000 usd which make it all the more important to understand what you are doing.

There are hardware wallets like the trezor.io which are easier to use. They are pretty safe.

I didn't loose my wallet. Bitcoincore is no longer synced with my wallet/blockchain. This is all still in the same place. Seems the client just aint using it and is auto downloading the blockchain. Not sure why the amount of coin in my wallet is relevant 

What you should do is back up your wallet.dat to a secure location before you do anything.

^^ Start with this ^^
Done

Both Bitcoincore, wallet.dat and block chain are on a external driver

It sounds like your Bitcoin Core configuration somehow lost where you stored the files. The fix (and file locations) will depend on what computer system you're using, so please start with that.

Computer system? Do you mean OS? If so i'm on Win10

[LoyceV]

Computer system? Do you mean OS? If so i'm on Win10

Maybe this helps: Bitcoin Core Data directory (after you made another backup of your wallet.dat).
(I don't use Windows myself)

Update: Is it possible your external drive just got another drive letter?

[Canna78]

Computer system? Do you mean OS? If so i'm on Win10

Maybe this helps: Bitcoin Core Data directory (after you made another backup of your wallet.dat).
(I don't use Windows myself)

Update: Is it possible your external drive just got another drive letter?

Ah linux distro? and none of them work. Im assuming because everything including the client is on my external. Its very possible a new drive letter was assigned.. im constantly drive swapping. Good lord your right lol i just checked

Alright a new folder was created on a different drive. Deleted folder and removed that drive Bam problem solved.
LoyceV your awesome brother. Thanks for the help  

AdolfinWolf, LoyceV and philipma1957 Seriously thank you for taking the time out of your day to help me out.

[nc50lc]

Its very possible a new drive letter was assigned.. im constantly drive swapping. Good lord your right lol i just checked
-snip-

I was going to say that but you already figured it out.

But since you're constantly swapping external drives, I'd recommend you to manually assign a letter that wont be used by the other drives, like Drive L~Z.
That's how I manage my external drives.

That way, even if you plugged the other drives first, the assigned letter for the external drive where the bitcoin datadir is, wont be taken by it.

To manually assign a drive letter:

• Go to search: "Create and Format Hard Disk Partition"
• Right-click on the disk that you want to change the letter and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths...".
• Highlight the letter, click "Change" and select the letter that you want from the drop-down menu, then "OK" to save it.

Then set the new custom datadir using the bitcoin.conf file in bitcoin's default data directory (location).
Edit it using a text editor and paste the line datadir=<your new data directory>
If you don't have a bitcoin.conf file in the default data dir, you can create a new text document and rename it from "New Text Document.txt" into "bitcoin.conf" (including the extension '.txt' -> '.conf').