Bitcoin Classic Wallet problem

[22argento]

I've used Bitcoin Classic Wallet for quite some time with zero previous problems.  I loaded it today to let it catch up as I was planning to transfer new bitcoin into it from my Coinbase wallet as soon as the new bitcoin shows up at Coinbase. It went through the usual steps ("loading blocks" then "verifying blocks" then "synchronizing with network")  When it showed it was up to date instead of showing my bitcoin balance and my list of transactions as it previously has, it looks as if it has made a new wallet showing a zero balance and no record of my previous transactions. This new? wallet is unencrypted unlike my previous one.  
So I thought I'd just restore from my most recent backup saved on my external hard drive from a week or so ago. It did the same thing as my laptop wallet and now shows a zero balance and no previous transactions! I have my saved passphrase but don't see any place in the wallet settings menu to enter it to try to restore my previous laptop wallet. I can see all the transfers into my laptop wallet on the blockchain and how many times they've been verified but I doubt if this is any help.
Any ideas?

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[1714164411]

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[1714164411]

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[vm1990]

it sounds like wallet.dat (where your wallet info is stored) has become corrupt or gone missing. you need to copy you back up which should be a .dat file to C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming and rename it to wallet.dat and rerun bitcoin. it should then restore you original wallets and transactions. make sure you take back ups of anything and everything you move copy or replace (better to have to many copys than loose them

[22argento]

Before I saw that you replied I decided in my foolishness to just uninstall the whole wallet and download again in case the problem was with the wallet itself. It's been so long from my original download of this wallet that I forgot how long it takes to synchronize. The wallet indicates it's verifying 460K+ blocks of transaction history! I left it running through the night the last couple of nights and the progress bar shows it still 40 weeks behind out of the total 7 years? Bitcoin history. BTW do you know if this Classic Wallet is actually a bitcoin node that verifies all bitcoin transactions?
Have taken your advice and made copies of my wallet backup file and saved to laptop, external hard drive and flash drive. You're right, when I hold the cursor on any of these copies, indicates they're .DAT files (96KB)
I've found the wallet itself in my program files where you indicated. I'm not sure exactly how to transfer the DAT file, rename it, and into which subfolder? of the wallet program it should be placed. When this wallet is done synchronizing I'll message again with the names of subfolders, to see if you can provide more help, after I backup the new wallet as well, in case I mess it up trying to transfer my backup into it! 
If this works I will go to the expense of a hardware wallet or at least split my btc into several different cold storage wallets.
Thanks for your help. btc headed your way today for your trouble so far.