Found an old bitcoin folder, what to do whit it?

[Salvatoremarino]

Goodmorning to all!
I was searching for old memories in my old pc’s hard drive and found this bitcoin folder with the info if a wallet into it.
When I was younger i started to mine and buy some btc but I forgot about them!
Now that I have this folder, what can I do?
Where to open the files to check the balance?

[LoyceV]

If there's a file named wallet.dat, make a backup (on a USB stick). Then, make another backup, just to be sure.

Install the latest version of Bitcoin Core (see News link above this topic), make it read the wallet.dat, and let it sync. It depends on your system how exactly you can do this.

[Salvatoremarino]

Thank you!
I use mac, i downloaded bitcoin core and it have to download like 300gb of library!
Only after that i can have access to the balance?

[LoyceV]

it have to download like 300gb of library!

More like 450 GB by now.

Only after that i can have access to the balance?

If you load the wallet from the start, it'll show the transactions while it syncs. Assuming the transactions happened many years ago, you'll see them long before it's done. You can lookup the current balance of the addresses in a block explorer if you're in a rush.

[DaveF]

There are ways of exporting the private keys but it's probably just better to let everything download.
You may see some of the transactions as soon as the wallet loads, long before the sync finishes BUT they will be greyed out and not spendable until the sync finishes.
And as others have said make a copy or 2 of the wallet.dat file on an external drive before doing anything else.

For a bit more info take a look at LoyceV post here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4959742.0

-Dave

[BlackHatCoiner]

If you care about privacy: Let it sync. It might take a day or two, if you're using a strong CPU and have a decent internet speed.

If you don't care about privacy: You can export the private keys and load them on an SPV wallet, such as Electrum. To export a private key, open up Bitcoin Core and type:

Code:

dumpprivkey <BITCOIN_ADDRESS_HERE>

If you're in a rush AND you care about privacy, you can download the wallet software I've linked you above, and open it up with these parameters:

Code:

electrum --one-server --server=nw724n2hcotb2zaavdwhaudgggvpukb5ybpkz4duz7fvnp5fgkycsnad.onion:50002:s

The "--one-server" implies you'll only connect to one Electrum server. The "--server" defines what that server will be; in this case, it's mine. I don't keep neither share logs. To establish a connection you need to have Tor running in the background.


Security tip #1: Whichever option you decide to pick, do it on a, preferably, clean machine. If I were you, I'd format some drive I've had to keep the private keys safe there air-gapped, and let Bitcoin Core sync my watch-only wallet (that would have the addresses only).

Security tip #2: Don't trust strangers in PMs.

[NotATether]

Install the latest version of Bitcoin Core (see News link above this topic), make it read the wallet.dat, and let it sync. It depends on your system how exactly you can do this.

All you have to do is place the wallet.dat file inside the /wallets directory, which is immediately below the Bitcoin Core working directory. Then all you have to do is select it from inside Bitcoin Core to access it.