Hi, I`m pretty new here.
And I search enough on this forum, so any person who went through this process I`d appreciate your input.
I`m using btc-qt wallet and lets say my computer crashed or whatever reason and I had the wallet.dat file.
Whats the next step to retrieve my balance? Is there a youtube link on this, cause I`m more of a visual learner.
Well I can tell you that there is Bitcoin Core Guide that I created @Bitcoin Online Embassy.
You can visit
www.btc-embassy.com and find a cube marked as "BTC Embassy Guides" there is a guide where you will learn about how to use your wallet.
Ps. I hope that when you say qt you mean Core
as Bitcoin Core is the right name for new official Bitcoin Client. Newest version : 0.9.2.1. From 0.9.0 it is called "Core".
Online Embassy guide provide 90 screens with text to read about. You will learn how to make a backup with no prob and not only this one. Have a look over there.
You can find official Bitcoin Embassy Thread here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=612291.0
A quick answer to your question: If you want to retrieve your balance from a wallet.dat file you just need to download and run Bitoin Core - then main data directories for Bitcoin Core are created. Close Bitcoin Core.Copy your "backup" (wallet.dat) into Bitcoin Core data folder.
Windows XP default:C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application data\Bitcoin
Windows 7 default: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin
Linux : ~/.bitcoin/
Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/
Just copy your backuped wallet.dat file over there and run Bitcoin Core. That's it.
There will be a wallet.dat file already created (after your 1st run) - so you just need to replace it with your old backuped file.
And remember that you can store your backups with any name for the file, like something.dat - but when you copy this file into Bitcoin directory you need to name it wallet.dat.
Regards.