Why is my client saying "A fatal error occured. Bitcoin can no longer continue safely and will quit. "?

6

i am running bitcoin client on OSX. I am by no stretch of the imagination any good at using terminal. I had over 300 btc in there and my computer went black and now client keeps giving me this message "A fatal error occured. Bitcoin can no longer continue safely and will quit.

EXCEPTION: 22DbRunRecoveryException
DbEnv::open: DB_RUNRECOVERY: Fatal error, run database recovery
bitcoin in Runaway exception
" I can pay somebody to help me fix this problem. dont want to lose the coins i have there. thanks. you'll have to bear with me though. not too good at this.

nico1234

Posted 2012-09-14T19:24:30.307

Reputation: 71

3If you don't already have a backup of your wallet.dat file, make one now. If you do already have one, make another but don't overwrite the old one with this one. So long as you have some file that contains your private keys, you will ultimately be able to recover the coins. – David Schwartz – 2012-09-14T19:46:46.477

2And be cautious if you proceed to hire someone to help. – Stephen Gornick – 2012-09-14T21:48:43.203

Answers

2

That alone doesn't provide enough information to know which database file the error is occurring with. The debug.log might give a more precise indication.

If it is a problem with the blockchain, that is easily resolved. If the problem occurred after your computer crashed, that is likely what happened.

First though check to eliminate that the problem is that your hard drive partition is filled with no disk space remaining. That probably isn't the case on your Mac, but just in case, check first.

So, after making yet another backup up your wallet.dat, then you can do this to get a new copy of the blockchain:

These instructions are for mac. For Linux and Windows the directory names would be different.

 $ cd ~/Library/Application Support 
 $ mv Bitcoin Bitcoin-bak
 $ mkdir Bitcoin
 $ cd Bitcoin
 $ cp ../Bitcoin-bak/wallet.dat .

Then launch Bitcoin-Qt as normal. It will re-download the blockchain. This could take 24 hours or more, depending on a number of factors.

You might speed that up a bit by getting the blockchain as-of block 170,000 from here:

After it downloads, extract those files into your new ~/.bitcoin directory.

If after Bitcoin-qt downloads the blockchain to the most recent block and everything works fine (shows your wallet balance and transactions properly), you can then remove the .bitcoin-bak directory:

$ cd ~/Library/Application Support 
$ rm -rf Bitcoin-bak

Also, the blockchain download is faster if you are on the most recent release of Bitcoin-Qt, v0.6.3.

Stephen Gornick

Posted 2012-09-14T19:24:30.307

Reputation: 26 118

I am embarrassed to say that I cannot even find the wallet.dat file. like i previously stated I am a complete novice and cannot navigate terminal well at all. I am following what i have read as best i can and keep getting terminal messages that say there is no such file. – nico1234 – 2012-09-14T22:45:09.580

but i would like to say thank you to you guys thus far. really appreciate it – nico1234 – 2012-09-14T22:45:50.140

Oops, I had the wrong directory names, ... Mac is different. Updated the post. Try again please. – Stephen Gornick – 2012-09-14T23:18:23.520

Also, I added a note about the disk space. Just check that the disk isn't full -- that could cause this as well. – Stephen Gornick – 2012-09-14T23:19:15.250

got terminal working. buuuuut it still doesnt think there is a wallet.dat file: miltons-MacBook-Pro:Bitcoin milton$ cd ~/Library /Application Support miltons-MacBook-Pro:Library milton$ mv Bitcoin Bitcoin-bak miltons-MacBook-Pro:Library milton$ mkdir Bitcoin miltons-MacBook-Pro:Library milton$ cd Bitcoin miltons-MacBook-Pro:Bitcoin milton$ cp ~/Bitcoin-bak/wallet.dat . cp: /Users/milton/Bitcoin-bak/wallet.dat: No such file or directory miltons-MacBook-Pro:Bitcoin milton$ – nico1234 – 2012-09-15T01:53:56.070

thanks again for all th help. still havent fixed it but i think i am on the right path, as everything worked except the last command line – nico1234 – 2012-09-15T02:21:54.613

Sorry, fixed my typo. Try this:

$ cd ~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin

then

$ cp ../Bitcoin-bak/wallet.dat . – Stephen Gornick – 2012-09-15T09:09:13.283

should i try these two command lines after, $ cd ~/Library/Application Support $ mv Bitcoin Bitcoin-bak $ mkdir Bitcoin $ cd Bitcoin – nico1234 – 2012-09-15T17:30:51.687

I'm sorry, stack exchange comments suck as far as communicating. If you'ld like further assistance, please request help in the #bitcoin IRC channel: http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#bitcoin

– Stephen Gornick – 2012-09-18T08:09:00.200

Asked: 2012-09-14T19:24:30.307

Viewed: 2 885 times

Active: 2012-12-17T01:02:05.923