Recovering Old Bitcoin QT Wallet Question

[uMMcQxCWELNzkt]

Hello everyone,
So I've discovered an old Bitcoin QT wallet and followed the steps in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a08MlPSSULU).

Basically the steps were to replace the old wallet.dat with my backup .dat and use CMD rescan.

I'm still downloading the Blockchain (which is going to take ages). My question is, should available Bitcoins be updated straight away launching QT (before the blockchain finishes downloading)?

Currently the total is 0.0000000BTC available. What's interesting is that I can already see all the transactions and comparing in/out it looks like I should have some BTC left over. Do I just have to let the entire blockchain download before available BTC is refreshed?

[Dr.Lecter]

i think you can use console to get private key and use electrum wallet to recover it.   no need to wait sync all data.

Getting your Private Keys from the Bitcoin Core wallet

Electrum wallet

[boulderchain]

On a full client (like bitcoin qt) you will need the entire blockchain. It's the database where all the transactions from the network are stored and every node has it's own copy of this. So, your wallet can't know your balance until it has synced the wallet.

If you don't want to wait until it is synced, you can export all your private keys and use them in a light client. They just connect to a server and only get the information they need. Then you will see your balance instantly.

[ABCbits]

If you have intention to run full-nodes, want to have full blockchain copy or don't mind spend your storage/time, you should wait until sync process is finished. Using SSD make the process faster if you have fast internet connection.
Otherwise, just export your private key to SPV wallet such as Electrum.

Also, don't rely on "Total:" or your history when it's on sync. If you insist to sync the whole blockchain, but want to know your current balance, you can use getaddressesbyaccount "" commend on Bitcoin Core console to get list of bitcoin address on your wallet and check it on any bitcoin blockchain explorer.

[Thirdspace]

I'm still downloading the Blockchain (which is going to take ages). My question is, should available Bitcoins be updated straight away launching QT (before the blockchain finishes downloading)?

No, your real available bitcoin will be shown only after the whole blockchain downloaded
in the mean time, what you are seeing is the (historical) balance based on the latest block in your pc 
when the wallet is fully synced, then it will show the actual available balance

Currently the total is 0.0000000BTC available. What's interesting is that I can already see all the transactions and comparing in/out it looks like I should have some BTC left over. Do I just have to let the entire blockchain download before available BTC is refreshed?

read the previous posts to decide on what you want to do next
but I would suggest, first you should check all your addresses' balances on public explorer

[HCP]

I'm still downloading the Blockchain (which is going to take ages). My question is, should available Bitcoins be updated straight away launching QT (before the blockchain finishes downloading)?

No, the wallet has no way of knowing if that total is actually correct until it has fully synced and validated all the transactions that are applicable to your wallet.

Currently the total is 0.0000000BTC available. What's interesting is that I can already see all the transactions and comparing in/out it looks like I should have some BTC left over. Do I just have to let the entire blockchain download before available BTC is refreshed?

Yes. What you are seeing is the historical transactions that were previously recorded in your wallet file. However, these can NOT be "trusted" until the wallet has synced the blockchain up to the point that those transactions were created and it has validated them to make sure they are all valid and confirmed etc.

Additionally, your wallet has no way of knowing if there were any transactions AFTER the ones you can see... until the full blockchain has been downloaded and validated. That is to say, you cannot be certain you are indeed looking at "all the transactions".