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So bought my first Bitcoins the other day (27 & 28/11/13) on localcoins, then transferred them to a MultiBit wallet. No problems.

I decided to use a 'safer' wallet, therefore I moved the coins to a Bitcoin qt wallet. The last few days I've been waiting for the blockchain to sync..got to 97% then my comp crashed.

I reopened bitcoin qt, and now it's syncing from zero again...just as slowly.

What should I do? Is there a way to open a another wallet, get my coins there?

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4 Answers 4

Reset to default
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I sorted it out through Blockchain eventually and was able to move my BTCs somewhere else..phew..

Blockchain wouldn't let me import my qt wallet over Firefox but with Chrome, no probs. Then I had to import priv key (dunno why) aswell then bingo!

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As long as you have your wallet.dat , that's where your coins are . Back it up and back it up again.

Start bitcoin-qt.exe from command line with -rescan command and see if that makes a difference.

Is bitcoin-qt not showing your balance as unconfirmed ?

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  • I'm eally really not techie...I'm on a Mac..not sure what you mean by 'command line with rescan'
    – user9800
    Commented Dec 1, 2013 at 9:27
  • bitinnovate.com/…
    – user9800
    Commented Dec 1, 2013 at 9:30
  • I found the above link. Is it legit or an elaborate wallet stealing look alike website. Figure it's better to be safe(paranoid) than sorry.
    – user9800
    Commented Dec 1, 2013 at 9:32
  • And no...no balance and no unconfirmed balance too
    – user9800
    Commented Dec 1, 2013 at 9:33
  • If you got to your bitcoin data directory (/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/) is your wallet.dat there?
    – user1202278
    Commented Dec 1, 2013 at 9:34
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Now that you've found the wallet.dat file you should indeed import it into blockchain.info and then, and this is very important, send the coins back to an address in your multibit wallet. Why? Because blockchain.info is convenient for casual use but is not safe for storing large amounts i.e don't make a habit of it. You should never have moved your coins from multibit in the first place.

Also backup your multibit wallet as well. You can find out the location of the wallet file in multibit window title bar.

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  • OK, I've tried importing my wallet (qt) into blockchain with no success. I followed procedure to a T. Don't know what Im doing wrong.
    – user9800
    Commented Dec 1, 2013 at 11:43
  • I'm starting to freak out. My qt wallet doesn't seem to have any data in it (70KB). Is this right? WTF is happening?
    – user9800
    Commented Dec 1, 2013 at 11:49
  • Plus bitcoin qt will not open up now 'unexpectadly quit'
    – user9800
    Commented Dec 1, 2013 at 11:52
  • Calm down. As long as you have the wallet.dat file you are ok. The wallet.dat file isn't usually very large 70KB is not unusual. This is what I suggest you do a) backup your wallet.dat file again to a new USB drive/DVD/CD whatever just to be safe b) locate /Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/ and delete all the files in it c) copy the wallet.dat file from backup into that folder c) start up bitcoin qt again and let it sync with the network d) when it's done syncing (it can take a week) send the coins to an address in your multibit wallet.
    – Abdussamad
    Commented Dec 1, 2013 at 11:58
  • If you need additional help I suggest registering and posting on bitcointalk forums. It is easier to converse about this over there because communication can be two way.
    – Abdussamad
    Commented Dec 1, 2013 at 12:00
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If you are downloading the blockchain from scratch I strongly recommend using the bootstrap.dat file, which allows your computer to simply verify blocks and import them without needing to download for days or even weeks on end.

The main issue with downloading from the network is that your client will only download one block at a time. It starts with block #1 and will not try to download anything except for block #2 after block #1 is verified, and so on. As you can imagine, with network latency this can become a rather painful process, as you have endured.

The bootstrap.dat file is widely available on bittorrent, torrent files can be found here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/blockchain/

Direct torrent link: http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/blockchain/bootstrap.dat.torrent/download

Downloading the bootstrap.dat file is just as secure as downloading the blockchain from peers, but since all the data is already there, the only latency you suffer between blocks is going to your hard drive and finding the next block.

You simply need to place the bootstrap.dat in your %appdata%\Bitcoin folder, (on linux/unix in your .bitcoin folder) the file will be renamed bootstrap.dat.old when the data import is complete. Using this it took me only 4 hours to catch up with the network, as opposed to the 1-2 weeks it took me before reformatting on the same computer.

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