Forgive me I know very little about computers, I can barely type. I bought some btc years ago they are on a Bitcoin-Qt v08.5 beta wallet. I tried to send them to an exchange but didn't know to add fee. the trans action has been stuck but some (about a third) came back. I have no idea what to do. I am scared to death I am going to lose them.
Is there someone locally who you trust competely and can help you? There are many possibilities to get your Bitcoins to a more modern wallet, but if you barely know what you're doing, it's tricky to give remote help.
For now the most important things:
-make sure your wallet.dat is safe: keep a backup (or more than one) in a safe place
-do not send your wallet.dat to anybody who may ask you (also in private messages)
-do not send any private keys to anybody