<p>Your balance is kept in the <em>cloud</em>, specifically in the block chain.</p>

<p>Your wallet does not contain any balance info but just a private key that you can use to unlock the funds inside the block chain.</p>

<p>This means that it doesn't matter that you backup your wallet.dat file before your client is fully synched. Since it only contains your private keys, and not the balance itself.</p>

<p>So yes, after a full synch is completed, those coins will appear in your wallet. As long as you have your wallet.dat file, with the private keys associated to your address, you can access your funds.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-07T10:58:20.683Z
So you suggest I should not perform the reinstall until I get the coins in the wallet and then backup the wallet and place it in the appropriate directory after reinstall?
Khan Shahrukh
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-07T11:00:31.053Z
As long as you have the private keys associated with the addresses where your money is, all you need is the private keys, which are inside your wallet.dat file. So you can back that up, and even if your computer exploded, you still have access to your funds. As long as you have your wallet.dat file.
Luca Matteis
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-07T10:55:52.223Z
2014-02-07T11:08:54.180Z
2014-02-07T11:08:54.180Z
Luca Matteis
<p>On my current OS I have daemons of bitcoin and other altcoins running in bitcoin there were 5 different addresses lets say </p>

<ol>
<li>userA</li>
<li>userB</li>
<li>userC</li>
<li>userD</li>
<li>userE</li>
</ol>

<p>userB has sent some coins to a address generated by him, and this transaction was covered in e.g block number 300 but my bitcoind was synced till block number 250 only. Now if I save wallet.dat and place it in the same folder after reinstalling the OS will this retainn the addresses generated by different users ? and after synchronizing to block 300 will those coins comes into the wallet ?</p>

<wallet.dat>
Quick question about wallets
Khan Shahrukh
# Quick question about wallets

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-02-07)

On my current OS I have daemons of bitcoin and other altcoins running in bitcoin there were 5 different addresses lets say

1. userA
2. userB
3. userC
4. userD
5. userE

userB has sent some coins to a address generated by him, and this transaction was covered in e.g block number 300 but my bitcoind was synced till block number 250 only. Now if I save wallet.dat and place it in the same folder after reinstalling the OS will this retainn the addresses generated by different users ? and after synchronizing to block 300 will those coins comes into the wallet ?

**Tags:** wallet.dat


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2014-02-07. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

Your balance is kept in the *cloud*, specifically in the block chain.

Your wallet does not contain any balance info but just a private key that you can use to unlock the funds inside the block chain.

This means that it doesn't matter that you backup your wallet.dat file before your client is fully synched. Since it only contains your private keys, and not the balance itself.

So yes, after a full synch is completed, those coins will appear in your wallet. As long as you have your wallet.dat file, with the private keys associated to your address, you can access your funds.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: So you suggest I should not perform the reinstall until I get the coins in the wallet and then backup the wallet and place it in the appropriate directory after reinstall?  
> **username_1**: As long as you have the private keys associated with the addresses where your money is, all you need is the private keys, which are inside your wallet.dat file. So you can back that up, and even if your computer exploded, you still have access to your funds. As long as you have your wallet.dat file.  

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