Hello brilliant bitcoin people. My computer was recently destroyed (as in smashed, useless). Luckily, i had the foresight to backup my bitcoin wallet using the backup feature on bitcoin.qt. It gave me a file called bitbackup.dat which i have on a thumb drive.
That's all well and good but I don't know what python is or how to use this file to recover my lost bitcoins. the wiki suggests reinstalling, then replacing the wallet.dat file with with my backup file. this didn't do anything.
I only have about 12 bitcoin in that wallet, but it would be nice to get them back. so if anyone will tell me how to use that file to recover my old wallet, i'll gladly send half of the bitcoins in my lost wallet to you as a gracious thank you.
FREE BITCOINS FOR YOUR EXPERTISE!!! please include your address in the reply.
-olinader
Steps: (I am assuming you use windows)
1. Rename bitbackup.dat to wallet.dat.
2. Install Bitcoin client from here:
http://bitcoin.org/3. Run bitcoin client for the first time, and either
a)wait for it to download the blockchain
b) Download " bitcoin_blockchain_170000.zip" from bitcoin_blockchain_170000.zip, and unzip to '%APPDATA%\Bitcoin' (open a new "my computer' page and paste that in the address bar.), restart bitcoin client, and wait for it to update.
4. After the blockchain is fully downloaded,shut down bitcoin client, copy and replace the old wallet.dat (in the %APPDATA%\Bitcoin) with the new wallet.dat(originally bitbackup.dat)
5. Restart Bitcoin client.