Need help - Bitcoin error- Can I recover BTC?

[ErgoProxy]

So I just started using Bitcoin. Well I had 28 BTC in my wallet and I tried to start it up and it gave me an error:

http://i50.tinypic.com/2mq510z.png


   Please tell me I did not lose all 28 BTC. I've never used this wallet , have had coins stored on websites I'm a member of. How can I get these back if the program will not run? Is there data saved automatically or?

I'd appreciate any and all help with this! Thank you.

[gweedo]

no you didn't lose all the coins, you need to back up the wallet.dat, and re download the blockchain

[ErgoProxy]

no you didn't lose all the coins, you need to back up the wallet.dat, and re download the blockchain

Wow, thanks for the fast reply! OK sorry for the noob questions here, but what exactly do I download? The entire program over again or? Because I cannot even start the one I have now. Presumably that is what I must do?

[gweedo]

no you didn't lose all the coins, you need to back up the wallet.dat, and re download the blockchain

Wow, thanks for the fast reply! OK sorry for the noob questions here, but what exactly do I download? The entire program over again or? Because I cannot even start the one I have now. Presumably that is what I must do?

Your on windows so i am guessing your using Vista or 7 so in this folder C:\Users\YourUserName\Appdata\Roaming\Bitcoin

pull out the file named wallet.dat and back it up in a save place that has your private keys to claim your coins, then after that delete everything else in the folder, then restart the program, then after you download blockchain again, you should have a check on the right corner of the program. Then insert wallet.dat in that folder, and run the program with the -rescan command

[John (John K.)]

no you didn't lose all the coins, you need to back up the wallet.dat, and re download the blockchain

Wow, thanks for the fast reply! OK sorry for the noob questions here, but what exactly do I download? The entire program over again or? Because I cannot even start the one I have now. Presumably that is what I must do?

Go to the data directory (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Data_directory) and back up wallet.dat first as that is essentially your coins. Are you running the latest version 0.6.3? If not, upgrade to that. If you're running the newest version, delete everything in the data directory except wallet.dat, bitcoin.conf and addr.dat. Restart Bitcoin client and let it redownload the blockchain.

[ErgoProxy]

That has my private keys? lol Wow, I really am a dumbass. Wait, so I'd need something other than the wallet.dat to get the coins?

>.<   Sorry I've been working for nearly 14 hrs straight and not exactly the brightest bulb at the moment.  I'll go read a guide so I dont have to keep bugging someone to walk me through it.

[BFL-Scrypt]

If you've never used that wallet and your coins are all online (ie. on an exchange), you should be able to just blow away your Bitcoin client and re-install it.

[John (John K.)]

That has my private keys? lol Wow, I really am a dumbass. Wait, so I'd need something other than the wallet.dat to get the coins?

>.<   Sorry I've been working for nearly 14 hrs straight and not exactly the brightest bulb at the moment.  I'll go read a guide so I dont have to keep bugging someone to walk me through it.

Whatever you do, just back your wallet.dat file up first. Everything else is reversible. Then just delete everything in the data directory except wallet.dat, bitcoin.conf and addr.dat. Restart Bitcoin client and let it redownload the blockchain.

[FreeMoney]

That has my private keys? lol Wow, I really am a dumbass. Wait, so I'd need something other than the wallet.dat to get the coins?

>.<   Sorry I've been working for nearly 14 hrs straight and not exactly the brightest bulb at the moment.  I'll go read a guide so I dont have to keep bugging someone to walk me through it.

That sentence was hard to understand. He means back up wallet.dat because wallet.dat has your private keys in it. If it is safely backed up nothing can go wrong (as long as no one gets a copy of it).

[wersaup]

just as a quick interrupt. In some cases it's actually enough to open %APPDATA%\Bitcoin in windows explorer and delete the Database Directory. that sometimes work, but yeah, redownloading does the same trick with about 12-24 hours additional delay

[paraipan]

just as a quick interrupt. In some cases it's actually enough to open %APPDATA%\Bitcoin in windows explorer and delete the Database Directory. that sometimes work, but yeah, redownloading does the same trick with about 12-24 hours additional delay

^ I was about to say the same thing, usually does the trick because old format log files aren't compatible with the current bitcoin-qt version and you get that nasty error