Is there any way to recover a broken wallet.dat file?

[richardsNY]

I have by accident over-written a wallet.dat file without backing it up first (I know it's dumb). I let Recuva run in order to scan my system for my wallet file, and it did find the file, but Recuva is unable to recover it. If I load the file into Bitcoin Core it directly tells me that the wallet file is corrupted. Is there a way to somehow recover that file or at least extract the private key?

[achow101]

You can try to fix it by starting Bitcoin Core with the -salvagewallet option. It may work, but it may not be able to recover all of the private keys, so you may lose some of your balance.

[unholycactus]

I suppose it's worth mentioning you should always have a back up ready, even if you're not doing anything that could damage your wallet.dat
You never know when your hardware will fail.

[richardsNY]

You can try to fix it by starting Bitcoin Core with the -salvagewallet option. It may work, but it may not be able to recover all of the private keys, so you may lose some of your balance.

I have tried this but unfortunately it is not working.

I suppose it's worth mentioning you should always have a back up ready, even if you're not doing anything that could damage your wallet.dat
You never know when your hardware will fail.

I know that I should back up my wallet files at all time. I created a wallet just for the purpose of receiving a single transaction which would be sent directly to my normal wallet after it has got its first confirmation. And then again, I should have backed up that wallet first.

[unamis76]

Try something like pywallet

[immangrace]

Might I ask how much was on your wallet ?
I really hope you recover all your money, but in the future back up your wallet on a flash drive, cd, dvd or something that can get help you in case of hardware failure, good luck.
By the way I use electrum and store my seed on paper on different locations to not lose it, that might be a good option for you in the future.

[richardsNY]

Try something like pywallet

Again, no success unfortunately. I think the wallet.dat file is damaged too badly.

Might I ask how much was on your wallet ?
I really hope you recover all your money, but in the future back up your wallet on a flash drive, cd, dvd or something that can get help you in case of hardware failure, good luck.
By the way I use electrum and store my seed on paper on different locations to not lose it, that might be a good option for you in the future.

There is around 0.1 BTC in the wallet. Not a huge amount, but it's quite sad to see them be lost for ever in that wallet. And yes, I know I should back up all my wallets. I was elsewhere with my mind at that moment.