Help needed to find 2010 MS DOS mined wallet file

Hey folks, I'm hoping someone here can help me out. I need to figure out which wallet file I mined back in 2010 using MS DOS, before bitcoin core was a thing. I actually mined like 12 bitcoins but gave up because I got into League of Legends instead, and honestly, it didn't seem worth much back then. When I sold my computer, I made sure to back everything up on a hard drive, which I've still got. But I never really thought about it until now. Fast forward 14 years, I managed to recover all the data, but since the system was RAW, everything is showing as unknown files. The wallet file is probably among them, but I've got around 3,000 files to sift through. Is there a way to pinpoint a bitcoin wallet file from all these unnamed files? Most of them even have the wrong file types. Back in the day, it was just commands to mine, nothing to install. If anyone can help me figure this out, I’d be more than happy to share some of the bitcoins I mined in just half an hour. Here’s a glimpse of the file types I’ve recovered, about 3k files in total: https://i.imgur.com/K31PTiM.png How do you all go about identifying which file might be a bitcoin wallet? Thanks a ton!

Was that even a thing? I always thought you needed the Bitcoin software installed (it was called Bitcoin-Qt at the time) to be able to solo mine on a PC.

That's impossible you can't mine 12 BTC year 2010 because the reward you can get when mining with PC before per block is 50 so how its impossible that you can mine 12 BTC on that time? Even the image you provided is not related to any crypto stuff so how can we identify which one is your Bitcoin wallet? I can't find any files from that image it seems a related driver stuff or it's a virus.

Yes, you downloaded the files/zip folder with the programthen with cmd prompt you had to use commands to set it all up and mine.. it was all done in MS DOS You would see on msdos: "Mining ..." then the bitcoin count that youve found further down or next to it. In 30 minutes you could mine like 8 bitcoin with just a pny gtx9800 I was trying to make $100 a day at that time, bitcoin was 0.25 - 0.30 so that would be about $100 a day if I mined 24 hours but I couldnt play league of legends at the same time, it would stutter so I stopped mining. Bitcoin trade was all done on the forums and paypal, the pizza guy times.   Think I was using a pool, number of bitcoin would go 1... 2... 3... etc every few minutes and have "mining ..." I cant post a screenshot with 3k files, thats just an example how all the files are showing. What should I be looking for? Dont even know what kind of file was the wallet at that time. I know that now its wallet.dat and its in app folder but back then there was no instalation.. it was just a folder with files and you run everything through cmd. If only I could remember the pool I was using.. you would look on a list of pools and pick one to set it up. Wish someone knew how to identify the wallet. This thread is actually a lot like my situation: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5422772.0

Probably wallet.dat. That's what bitcoin-qt used. I've never seen a different name for the wallet. Google tells me Slush was the first mining pool in 2010. I highly doubt it was ever possible to mine $100 a day on a GPU, and if it was, why wouldn't you turn it on again when done with your games? Try the file command on Linux:

Do we know since when wallet file use Berkeley DB? I recall very early version of Bitcoin Core have almost no external dependency.

I can't tell you that. But it will make it easy to rule out most files. OP's "backup" looks weird: random file names look as if it came from file recovery instead of a backup.

The version I mined was completely independent. All I did was download a zip folder with the files, and set it all up through cmd ms dos. There was also a website with a list of pools addresses and ports if you chose to mine thru a pool. From what I recall it was all in these forums. But my question remains if anyone can help me identifying a bitcoin wallet out of 3k random named files.

For mass check all you files you can use notepad++ for multiple search  keywords Like on this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoaXMkD40VA&t=1s You will need try find worldkeys by turns: key! name  PiV If there is an address next to it, this is probably your wallet file.

So that is not you ! ??

I forget to mention it earlier. But if you have access to the HDD or raw copy of the HDD, you could use tool called pywallet to scan it and automatically find bitcoin wallet files. You can obtain it from https://github.com/jackjack-jj/pywallet. I also provide a short example how to use it on https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5472426.msg63097543#msg63097543. OP's most recent reply (3 posts above yours) indicate he actually refer to Windows's Command Prompt (cmd).

This is correct, early bitcoin was mined downloading a folder with the files and all set up through cmd ms dos. You mined in MS DOS. Its actually crazy nobody knows this or even mentions it. I must have been one of the first ones int he world mining bitcoin lol

Was there no setup of a wallet with the software you used back then? Do you remember ever creating a wallet? Did you ever have a Bitcoin address that your mining rewards went to that you could check on a blockchain explorer to verify that there were real coins there? What about private keys, did you ever save them somewhere? Do you know anyone else who mined using the same software like you did who actually got some bitcoins? A quick google search found nothing about your mysterious DOS mining software. There are articles about some Russian who developed a DOS program for a 1980s computer, but that's new and different from what you claim to have used.

You're the one making extraordinary claims, so you should provide some evidence. I wasn't around in 2010, but you were for sure not one of the earliest miners. Read some of the old topics about mining to find what was used back then.

"Was there no setup of a wallet with the software you used back then?" It was all done through cmd msdos, at that time I didnt know about any wallets, just followed a guide cluelessly from THIS VERY WEBSITE to set it all up and mine. Most of early posts on these forums dont exist anymore somewhow. All files were in a folder called Bitcoin you downloaded from here as well. Not in the app folder like nowadays that you have to install bitcoin core. Never got to know my bitcoin address either. Was clueless like most everyone else at that time, its easy to talk now. "Do you know anyone else who mined using the same software like you did who actually got some bitcoins?" No, and I WISH I knew. "A quick google search found nothing about your mysterious DOS mining software." Its just ms dos, you mined bitcoin windowed, and league of legends would stutter and become unplayable. Said Mining... Then the coin count on the bottom..

The forum has all the old posts. Just check satoshi's conversations back from 2009-2010. They are there. You have the posts that Hal Finney made. You can find legendary posts like the 10,000 BTCs for two pizzas or the Hodl post. If the post with download links to the MS DOS software no longer exists, it could have been deleted because it was a scam or the software was infected with malware. Posts on Bitcointalk get deleted if they break one or more rules. Sorry to say, but I think you were scammed.

I had a bit of free time today so I went ahead and did some scouting in the archived versions of the forum when it was still under bitcoin.org. The archived wiki page[1] written by theymos and Xunie (~2009-2010) has some information regarding how to mine with your computer at the time and, as you can see in section And now, the finale!, the block reward was 50 bitcoin and not 1,2 or even 3 bitcoin[2], like other have mentioned. The only way that you could have 12 bitcoin was to have received some during the period that you mention. Besides, you wrote that you followed a guide somewhere in 2010 on the forum and since you mentioned that LoL froze during the program execution, I though that you could have followed this[3] guide to mine them but the screenshots[4] do not add up to your description: If you are sure that you followed such a guide, you can visit the oldest archived page in 2010 and see if you are able to find anything that you memory may pick up as familiar. EDIT: Added screenshot mentioned in [4] as the forum link is broken. [1]https://web.archive.org/web/20100907170948/http://www.bitcoin.org/wiki/doku.php?id=getting_started [2]http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=693.msg7316#msg7316 [3]https://web.archive.org/web/20101204064315/http://www.newslobster.com/random/how-to-get-started-using-your-gpu-to-mine-for-bitcoins-on-windows [4]http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1334.msg22741#msg22741

Stop talking about msdos. You likely ran a CPU or a GPU miner executable file from the CMD window that's available from Windows XP or 7, popular at that time. That wasn't any msdos exe at all. If this miner was connected to a mining pool, it is possible that you mined Bitcoins in single units for the shares you mined than a full block reward of 50BTC in that period. It's unlikely that you mined solo without a pool as that would've required a bitcoind node running. And I don't think you mined solo targeted at a solo mining pool like ckpool, which iirc didn't exist in 2010. Assuming you mined to a pool, here's a problem when you're clueless as you state it. You would've had to setup your own receiving Bitcoin address to which the pool should've paid out your shares. It wasn't uncommon that those miner packages (zip archives) had a working configuration with a receiving address of the miner.exe creator. The docs said that you would've to change that address with your own mining address. The miner software creator benefitted from those dummies who didn't change the address for whatever reason. During a short test of the miner exe it always worked fine, no-one wants to see error messages or burn coins for nothing. This more or less tells me, that you very very likely don't have any coins from 2010 in your possession or any wallet file you now desperately try to find. I'm not 100% sure about that, but all what you have written so far is very much conclusive with my assumption. How do I know? Well, in 2011 I mined with iirc bfgminer.exe or cgminer.exe (don't remember exactly which one) pointed at Eligius pool. But contrary to you, I had setup a Bitcoin-GUI wallet.dat and have taken a specific Bitcoin address from my personal wallet to mine on Eligius pool. Once I reached payout limit, I got Bitcoin crumbles transfered directly via coinbase transaction from Eligius pool into my wallet. Still fond of those incoming transactions with the mining icon attached to them. I don't remember exactly since when GPU mining started to be a thing and bfgminer or cgminer or whatever was the hot shit. I wish for you that I'm wrong and am a bit sorry to be a party crasher, but the evidence you presented isn't the best for your case.

Do Pywallet do not.. (or there is not other tools) that scan the whole drive for all wallets, private keys ... Bitcoin related things ?? I am almont sure that there is been such tool existing !! There wa no mining pools on 2010 I think !  Or there was ! ?? ??     Though I don't think there was command lines games that gives bitcoins or have ever existed  First faucet was created on 2011 ! Maybe he has mined 12 blocks and confuse that with (bitcoins) ! back to 2010 this is very possible!

Pywallet does that, but it's not clear whether in 2010 wallet.dat (created by Bitcoin Core) already use Berkeley DB format. I also mentioned pywallet earlier, but OP didn't respond to my suggestion. It'd be great if you read whole thread. LoyceV already mention mining pool called Slush exist since 2010. And FYI, Gavin Andresen create faucet on 2010. Here's the proof, https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=183.0. It's certainly possible, since we don't know which mining software he used.