QT wallet never syncronizes; often crashes; is locked and not showing attempt to send BTC

Question

Running Windows 7; I'm not really sure what is going on. The wallet has stolen my BTC.

The wallet never synchronizes, it never finishes. If I leave it on all day -I will come home to see it crashed.

The application is also not visible from anywhere except possibly from Task Manager. When I try to start it.. it says:

cannot obtain a lock on data directory ... Bitcoin is probably already running.

My goal here is to get the bitcoins that I have and move them back to the account I have with the vendor. Then I will purge my system of this so called "program" and never use it again.

Additional information: Bitcoin Wallet version 0.5.0.1

This is old -can I upgrade without losing my secure key? WHERE IS MY WALLET.DAT FILE? I CAN'T FIND IT.

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/2080/qk0m.jpg

ANY HELP IS GOOD.

Answer 1

Two actions here:

• Back up your wallet.dat file

You will most likely find it here, based on these instructions: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Securing_your_wallet#Windows_2

C:\Documents and Settings\YourUserName\Application data\Bitcoin (Windows XP)

C:\Users\YourUserName\Appdata\Roaming\Bitcoin (Windows Vista and 7)

• Update your bitcoin-qt instance to the latest version: http://bitcoin.org/en/download

Answer 2

In case everything else fails, you can import your wallet into blockchain.info. See e.g. How to import your Bitcoin wallet.dat into Blockchain.info by Damien P for more information.