bitcoinqt --> move your wallet.dat back and forth ---> lost all BTC? heartattack

[sbrzol]

the story :

1,  I copied/moved my datadir to another drive  (it was too big,  it worked)  (all files, wallet.dat too)      (8.5 beta 32 bit)
it is possible that the qt client was running when the wallet.dat was copied, perhaps this was the problem,  but i think it is normal thought if a program is in idle state (no action on my wallet) then i can copy it (the files, wallet.dat) another place without the assumption it will be corrupted
(i do not know weather the client (after restarted with datadir parameters) used the copied wallet.dat or the original appdata/roaming/bitcoin version, probably the original one)
2,  later the same day, I installed new version 9.2.1 (64 bit), it created a new folder in program files (64 bit) so the 8.5 version was still available on my computer
(before the installion i closed the qt client)
3, the installer asked the datadir, i tried to give them my moved datadir
4, tried to run the new client but got always  "wallet.dat corrupt salvage failed"
5 uninstall 9.2 , reinstall 8.5 , copied back the wallet.dat to original place appdata/roaming/bitcoin , but got the same error

i can only recover my wallet with pywallet.py  --dump

it took me 2 hours to find and use this method, while i was near in heart attack , reading/browsing forums, reading that sometimes none of the recovery methods works 

i think there will be more stories like this one, but with loss , i thinks this behavior from a bitcoin wallet client is not acceptable (file corrupting while copying)

(i know that there is an option in menu "backup wallet" but when you copy  all files (in an idle application) you do not thing on that the files could be corrupted )

[PolarPoint]

I did not see you mention anything on backing up wallet.dat file in another directory or a usb flash drive. I think backing up would save you those 2 hours. The wallet.dat file IS your key to your fortune, don't treat it like any other file in your hard drive. Make sure bitcoin core exited properly and rest for a few minutes before you do anything to wallet.dat

[sbrzol]

I did not see you mention anything on backing up wallet.dat file in another directory or a usb flash drive. I think backing up would save you those 2 hours. The wallet.dat file IS your key to your fortune, don't treat it like any other file in your hard drive. Make sure bitcoin core exited properly and rest for a few minutes before you do anything to wallet.dat

i backed up my wallet earlier , but forgot that it was before i encrypted it , so the backup version was useless (my fault too)

after reading/browsing forums now i know that i have to wait until the client closing fully, but it would be nice if all version warn to these (file corruption) risk (while opening/loading or closing)

[BitCoinDream]

I did not see you mention anything on backing up wallet.dat file in another directory or a usb flash drive. I think backing up would save you those 2 hours. The wallet.dat file IS your key to your fortune, don't treat it like any other file in your hard drive. Make sure bitcoin core exited properly and rest for a few minutes before you do anything to wallet.dat

i backed up my wallet earlier , but forgot that it was before i encrypted it , so the backup version was useless (my fault too)

after reading/browsing forums now i know that i have to wait until the client closing fully, but it would be nice if all version warn to these (file corruption) risk (while opening/loading or closing)

Does not the wallet.dat contain the bitcoin address and its corresponding private key in WIF ? ...Just confirming.

[grue]

I did not see you mention anything on backing up wallet.dat file in another directory or a usb flash drive. I think backing up would save you those 2 hours. The wallet.dat file IS your key to your fortune, don't treat it like any other file in your hard drive. Make sure bitcoin core exited properly and rest for a few minutes before you do anything to wallet.dat

i backed up my wallet earlier , but forgot that it was before i encrypted it , so the backup version was useless (my fault too)

after reading/browsing forums now i know that i have to wait until the client closing fully, but it would be nice if all version warn to these (file corruption) risk (while opening/loading or closing)

like this?

I did not see you mention anything on backing up wallet.dat file in another directory or a usb flash drive. I think backing up would save you those 2 hours. The wallet.dat file IS your key to your fortune, don't treat it like any other file in your hard drive. Make sure bitcoin core exited properly and rest for a few minutes before you do anything to wallet.dat

i backed up my wallet earlier , but forgot that it was before i encrypted it , so the backup version was useless (my fault too)

after reading/browsing forums now i know that i have to wait until the client closing fully, but it would be nice if all version warn to these (file corruption) risk (while opening/loading or closing)

Does not the wallet.dat contain the bitcoin address and its corresponding private key in WIF ? ...Just confirming.

no, the private keys are stored in BDB format.

[BitCoinDream]

I did not see you mention anything on backing up wallet.dat file in another directory or a usb flash drive. I think backing up would save you those 2 hours. The wallet.dat file IS your key to your fortune, don't treat it like any other file in your hard drive. Make sure bitcoin core exited properly and rest for a few minutes before you do anything to wallet.dat

i backed up my wallet earlier , but forgot that it was before i encrypted it , so the backup version was useless (my fault too)

after reading/browsing forums now i know that i have to wait until the client closing fully, but it would be nice if all version warn to these (file corruption) risk (while opening/loading or closing)

Does not the wallet.dat contain the bitcoin address and its corresponding private key in WIF ? ...Just confirming.

no, the private keys are stored in BDB format.

This confuses me. I have the paper wallet backup of my blockchain.info wallets which provides me the keys in Bitcoin-QT format. Once Danny Hamilton said in another thread that this is WIF and I can readily import my coins to Bitcoin-QT using this paper wallet keys. But u r saying it is in BDB.

Frankly, whatever format u call it is unimportant to me. What is important is, will I be able to get back my coins to Bitcoin-QT using the Bitcoin-QT format provided by BlockChain.info paper wallet ?

[cech4204a]

I suggest you to use paper backup and USB stick backup of your private keys in future. With private keys in your pocket, nothing can take your BTC away, except for hackers on bruteforce, but that's taking like 40 years ATM.

[BitCoinDream]

I suggest you to use paper backup and USB stick backup of your private keys in future. With private keys in your pocket, nothing can take your BTC away, except for hackers on bruteforce, but that's taking like 40 years ATM.

What r u talking about ? 40 years to bruteforce a private key ? I used to know that is more than a sun burn time !!!

[grue]

This confuses me. I have the paper wallet backup of my blockchain.info wallets which provides me the keys in Bitcoin-QT format. Once Danny Hamilton said in another thread that this is WIF and I can readily import my coins to Bitcoin-QT using this paper wallet keys. But u r saying it is in BDB.

Frankly, whatever format u call it is unimportant to me. What is important is, will I be able to get back my coins to Bitcoin-QT using the Bitcoin-QT format provided by BlockChain.info paper wallet ?

The wallet is stored in BDB, but you can import WIF keys into it using bitcoin-qt and tools like pywallet. So yes, you can get back your coins to Bitcoin-QT using the Bitcoin-QT format provided by BlockChain.info paper wallet.

[sbrzol]

i opened this topic

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=497893.0 Recovered Private Keys with Pywallet but Passphrase is Wrong

I have the same problem
After i recovered my wallet with pywallet in June and succesfully loaded into bitcoin core/qt , i can not send bitcoins because the passphrase is incorrect  
I cant remember that i tried it in June that bitcoin qt/core is able to send bitcoins (is passphrase correct at that time) probably not (available balance is the same as earlier, before the salvage error)

Here is one of my post in this issue:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=34028.msg9271649#msg9271649

I will try to import private keys from file that pywallet dumpwallet  created in this way
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=398155.msg6964230#msg6964230  

but i cannot run cat unix command (step 4) ,  So how can i import my private keys with another method?  (the recovered wallet.dat can loaded into bitcoin core but passphrase is incorrect )

[btchris]

i opened this topic

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=497893.0 Recovered Private Keys with Pywallet but Passphrase is Wrong

I have the same problem
After i recovered my wallet with pywallet in June and succesfully loaded into bitcoin core/qt , i can not send bitcoins because the passphrase is incorrect  
I cant remember that i tried it in June that bitcoin qt/core is able to send bitcoins (is passphrase correct at that time) probably not (available balance is the same as earlier, before the salvage error)

Here is one of my post in this issue:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=34028.msg9271649#msg9271649

I will try to import private keys from file that pywallet dumpwallet  created in this way
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=398155.msg6964230#msg6964230  

but i cannot run cat unix command (step 4) ,  So how can i import my private keys with another method?  (the recovered wallet.dat can loaded into bitcoin core but passphrase is incorrect )

Responded to you in the pywallet thread over here.

You should probably take it easy with posting to 4 different threads on the same issue... 2 threads (one in the Armory section, one in tech support) are plenty...

[sbrzol]

i opened this topic

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=497893.0 Recovered Private Keys with Pywallet but Passphrase is Wrong

I have the same problem
After i recovered my wallet with pywallet in June and succesfully loaded into bitcoin core/qt , i can not send bitcoins because the passphrase is incorrect  
I cant remember that i tried it in June that bitcoin qt/core is able to send bitcoins (is passphrase correct at that time) probably not (available balance is the same as earlier, before the salvage error)

Here is one of my post in this issue:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=34028.msg9271649#msg9271649

I will try to import private keys from file that pywallet dumpwallet  created in this way
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=398155.msg6964230#msg6964230  

but i cannot run cat unix command (step 4) ,  So how can i import my private keys with another method?  (the recovered wallet.dat can loaded into bitcoin core but passphrase is incorrect )

Responded to you in the pywallet thread over here.

You should probably take it easy with posting to 4 different threads on the same issue... 2 threads (one in the Armory section, one in tech support) are plenty...

sorry for that, but it was very important for me (250BTC) to reach as many people as i can (now btc goes to trezor wallet)