Topic: Bitcoin-QT Restore Help - Newb (Read 1421 times)

Rename backup.dat to wallet.dat and replace the original and then start syncing.

Make sure you keep backups whatever you do

Here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Data_directory

Can you do a search for "wallet.dat" in your backups?

I recently had to take my MBP into Apple and they had to restore my entire computer but they said the issue came from when this happened previously and I restored from my time machine backup. So they said I could pull files off of the time machine backup but I couldn't restore from the backup. Now my problems come in with the Bitcoin-QT wallet I had on my computer. I would like to pull up my old info since I have that old address to receiving money from people. I did find a Bitcoin-QT Backup.dat file but its not showing the wallet.dat file everyone keeps mentioning. I have also gone through my time machine backup to locate the Bitcoin-QT file that should  be on there but can't find it anywhere. I keep getting told its under Library/App Support/Bitcoin/ wallet.dat but there is no Bitcoin folder in the backup or even in my new library so I wouldn't be able to drop it in there anyways.

So what I am needing help with is with a few things.

1. Help locating the backup folder on my time machine?

2. If I'm able to use the Bitcoin-QT backup.dat file to resync my old blockchain then how so?

3. With that do I let the Bitcoin-QT start running and syncing the blockchain and once its completely synced add my backup into there to get it to sync my blockchain?  

4. Any other way possible to restore my previous wallet like maybe going ahead and restoring my entire computer to my timemachine backup and then trying to see if that saves my wallet and then trying to create a backup again of the most current wallet? (This is the last case scenario since that means I would have to make my computer start going through all the issues I had in the first place with it.)

Any help would be appreciated and making sure something like this doesn't happen again. Also just so people know there wasn't much BTC in the wallet it was just that I have several people sending BTC to that wallet and thats the main reason I need to restore it.

[Edit] (Update) After posting on here and Reddit I had enough people come together and had different ideas to figure it all out. So my folder was hidden from plain sight and had to use the command+shift+[G] keys to see my hidden Bitcoin folder. Once I was in that folder I entered into time machine and the same exact folder came up and I went to the last backup before my computer got restored and copied those files and pasted those into the Bitcoin folder created after opening up Bitcoin-QT again to do a fresh sync.

So I deleted the new files and added my old files from my backup and then opened up Bitcoin-QT and it started to process and verify blocks. Once it opened up it had to sync all my data back on and showed my account balance from what I had prior to this whole ordeal. Now I wasn't sure it was going to work so it spent all night reindexing and syncing the blockchain and finally finished this morning. Once it finished I closed the wallet down and reopened it and it came right back to my wallet. So I am thankful for all the help and appreciate the bitcoin community for this. As I am sure everyone knows it can be kind of stressful to have to deal with something like this but luckily there are files and backups that help prevent anyone from losing the wallet completely.

I will now make sure I backup the wallet every month or so if not more often. This is one thing that I believe scares people from using bitcoins because it is easy to lose your wallet/BTC if you don't know what you're doing. I am looking into the Electrum wallet as well to see if I actually like that one. Thanks again for your help.