need assistance with my 2010 wallet.dat file

hey, I'm checking my hard drive with winhex to locate my keys but I can't find anything. it all looks like gibberish. any suggestions?

If you have been using the hard drive, that's normal. Chances that you'll recover the wallet.dat in that case is very slim.

didnt use it that much

Do you know what you are looking for? You should look for hex values "0420" and "308201130201010420". I would recommend to use one of existing tools, like https://github.com/pierce403/keyhunter And the most likely you will not be able to extract your private key if wallet was encrypted with password.

Have you created raw copy of your harddrive? It's safer to make raw copy and perform deep search from the copy. PyWallet also have option to scan drive[1], https://github.com/jackjack-jj/pywallet. If OP remember/identify date of wallet last access correctly, it shouldn't be encrypted. Encryption only available since Bitcoin Qt 0.4.0 which released on late 2011[2]. [1] https://github.com/jackjack-jj/pywallet/blob/master/pywallet.py#L3942-L3946 [2] https://bitcoin.org/en/release/v0.4.0

I REMEMBER THAT I DIDNT KNOW how to put a password , so no password when i look with hex i find wallet.dat but no address and nothing looks like a wallet

Since you said above that you can see any hex code that looks like a wallet then maybe your wallet.dat is encrypted with a password. Why not try to extract the wallet.dat file from your hex tool and then try to install Bitcoin and import the wallet let it sync it for a while or use the pywallet from jackjackjj as suggested above and then use the dump command to export the private keys. Make sure you have python installed. Here's the command:

Pywallet requires ton of plugins, you dont want to be connecting to the internet while sandboxed just to get that script working properly, (just a millisecond can leak keys) to some hacker i suggest first just searching for the berkeley database file headers, you can then use some software to extract the files. but first make a disk image using a ubuntu live usb or something. go to gnome disks, (if using windows make sure the computer isnt hibernating and shut down correctly or not i dunno maybe that might overwrite some data if you do make 3 disk images i guess, do sudo gnome-disks if your noob and select disk and create an image of it on a m2ssd or something) source: https://github.com/Sepero/SearchBin/blob/master/searchbin.py is useful works out fo the box without dependencies, might need to chmod +x searchbin.py if it dont execute on terminal after changing into the directory with the searchbin.py file i cant explain how ot run this maybe pay someone to support you in person if you have no tech skills. its on might work too if you want to go cowboy mode. it probably will miss it, so try  if it doesnt work, some keys have this preseeding, i noticed half the old wallets i extracted keys from using raw extraction 10141f found mroe keys, they are just 31 bytes after instead of 32 but they start with 00 i think it will start outputting offsets of whereveer private keys are stored on the drive. and you can then run pywallet or if you want to be pressie  locate the wallet file. also a bonus, will output offsets to wallet files. i mean its not guaranteed to, but it should help you get closer to recovering it. if you get rich please ask me for my wallet address. thanks also if you find any hits let me know i can give more advice, im learning the shit out of recovering wallets as i still cant recover mine.[/code]

Ok so I am new to this forum so I am not sure if this is the proper place to be but I have a problem I am looking for help with. Back in 2010 someone gave me a gift that was a flash drive which contained some bitcoin in a wallet(?). At the time very few people knew of crypto currency and I thought it was useless. (Ungrateful, I know). Anyways, now I can't get the flash drive to open on my computer., is it possible that its not compatible with my newer computer?Any help would be appreciated.

What kind of problem do you have? Do you see files and you do not know how to open them? Or Is usb recognized by your computer and opened? If not, which system do you use? Maybe disk was formatted for example for linux and you are using on windows and it is not recognized. More details please. Later you will have to probably use old Bitcoin Core to extract keys or external program like pywallet. But if you have access to files, first do the backup. Or two.

What OS are you running? Windows? If so, does it make the USB connected noise when you plug the flash drive in? Do you get any "error" notifications saying the device has failed to be recognised or initialised? 12 years is quite a long time for flash drives... so, it is possible that the device is actually dead.

SO i found 130201010420 couple of times on my  hard drive with winhex i hope its a good sign , but dont know what i do from here i found wallet.dat (only with winhex ) when i try to look 4 it on a regular search i dont find it . olso found Cipherblockchaining , bitcoin can someone help me what the next step ?

Yes i can help. This is good news you might have found your key. After the 0420 digits there will be 64 digits this is usually the key. So count 64 digits after 0420 and write the digits on paper. Then you have the privkey in hex. You will need to convert it to a key that can be imported to wallet which you can get at www.electrum.org  You need to convert 64 digit hex into private key wallet import format , then import it Hope it works send me tip thank you.

OK , SO IT LOOKS LIKE SOME KIND OF A KEY ...  I HAVE LIKE 95 TIMES THIS 130201010420  AFTER THE 0420 I HAVE 64 BITS IN ALL OF THEM THAT START WITH THE SAME FIRST 6 BITS AND THEY ALL FINISH WITH THE SAME 2 BITS AND AFTER EVERY 64 BITS I HAVE 00 00 THET ALL START WITH D0 30 BUT THEY NOT THE SAME , EVERY ONE OF THEM IS A BIT DEFERENT IS THAT LOOKS RIGHT ?

Ok this sounds right. Yes it should be different numbers. Did you find out anything.

NO IDONT KNOW HOW to convert 64 digit hex into private key wallet import format

https://iancoleman.io/bitcoin-key-compression/ Or it’s offline version ti download from github. Link at the bottom of the page

Ian Coleman's key compression tool will not accept HEX Private keys, only WIF and BIP38 PrvKeys. As an alternative, you can use brainwallet tool, but same as PawGo's suggestion: use it offline. Webpage (do not use it online): https://brainwalletx.github.io/#generator Download ZIP, extract it and transfer the whole folder to your offline PC, run "index.html" using your browser. To use it for converting HEX into WIF prvKey: In 'Get Address From' line, click "Secret Component" button.In 'Secret Exponent' line, paste your 64 digit hex.In 'Address QR Code', click "Toggle Key" and the private key WIF will be displayed above the address.You can toggle between compressed and uncompressed WIF by clicking the bottons with the same name in "Point Conversion' line.Copy both Compressed (starts with 'K' or 'L') and Uncompressed (starts with '5') WIF and import them to your preferred wallet.

Yes, you are right, my mistake. Lack of coffee - that page accepts public key hex, not private key. There is also: https://learnmeabitcoin.com/technical/wif but I am not sure if it is possible to run it offline.