When I went back in to my wallet to see my receive keys, the problem just took care of itself! I guess there was just some lag with multibit and the blockchain or some sort of glitch. I reset the blockchain several times over the last few days and it never worked so I dont know why things are working now, but they are. What a relief! I have some big lessons learned from this scare and I have since exported my key to a couple of different offline locations.
When opening my key file in notepad, are all of the displayed characters the actual key? If was to print out my key file from notepad would that be my "paper wallet/key"? Or do i have to open the key file with another program to visually see what the key is? Thanks for the help, even though this problem just sorted itself Ill still make a little donation to you.
I guess it's due to Multibit's glitch. I would recommend you to send some long term coins to paper wallets (
www.bitaddress.org), and back those up at multiple off site places like fireproof safes etc. If the key file is not exported via the encrypted method, then yes, the actual keys are included (not a single key as there's change addresses etc). I would still use the paper wallet method though for the peace of the mind.
PS: My signature address will work nicely, thanks again!
