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Topic: How to find a wallet.dat file that had no extension (Read 806 times)

legendary
Activity: 2772
Merit: 2846
Was your wallet.dat file encrypted (was it password protected)?

How old was the bitcoin software you used to generate it? The database it uses changed from one type to another years ago. During 2013 it changed from using Berkeley DB to LevelDB.

When you say the "original bitcoin wallet program" do you mean the first ever bitcoin software released by satoshi?

I have the original bitcoin wallet program, which was version 0.1.0

I tested generating three different wallet.dat files with it, and opening them in a hex editor. The results are below. They all begin with this sequence of bytes "00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 62 31 05 00 09 00 00 00 00 20". If you search your hard drive for that sequence you might locate an old wallet file.

Quote
00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 62 31 05 00 09 00 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 09 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 DA 40 08 00 00 00 29 00 A7 04 B9 12 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00




Quote
00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 62 31 05 00 09 00 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 09 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 D9 40 08 00 00 00 1D 00 BE 0B C7 29 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00




Quote
00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 62 31 05 00 09 00 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 09 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 D9 40 08 00 00 00 1E 00 29 54 36 19 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

sr. member
Activity: 348
Merit: 251
Thanks for this but PoolA seems to be bringing up all sorts of stuff that will make it difficult to test all files in the bitcoin client.....can you think or find something more unique by any chance? Smiley

You can linux grep for known addresses in the file.   It will return a binary file warning but match.
It is also a berkeley db file, you can creatively leverage that.


I actually am using grep....not sure how to search for a berkeley db file....
vh
hero member
Activity: 699
Merit: 666
Thanks for this but PoolA seems to be bringing up all sorts of stuff that will make it difficult to test all files in the bitcoin client.....can you think or find something more unique by any chance? Smiley

You can linux grep for known addresses in the file.   It will return a binary file warning but match.
It is also a berkeley db file, you can creatively leverage that.
member
Activity: 149
Merit: 22
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Thanks for this but PoolA seems to be bringing up all sorts of stuff that will make it difficult to test all files in the bitcoin client.....can you think or find something more unique by any chance? Smiley

Ok, that's difficult then. Is it also true for PoolB, PoolC, ...?
What is being brought up there. If I try it, I don't have so many files on my hdd that contain this.
Else, you could try what the posters above said.
legendary
Activity: 2772
Merit: 2846
By default Bitcoin core names a wallet file as wallet.dat. If you remove the extension you are left with wallet. Install a hard drive searcher like Locate32 and search your hard drive for the word wallet, or whatever you named your wallet file as.

If you can't remember your wallet file's name try HCP's suggestion in the post above.
HCP
legendary
Activity: 2086
Merit: 4361
Please clarify, what do you need?
Where is your wallet file, and what do you want to do with it exactly - the last post is somewhat confusing.
Put simply... OP had a "wallet.dat"... They removed the .dat extension for "security reasons" and now can't find the file on their computer. The were hoping someone might be able to give them a clue as to some sort of unique identifier within the wallet file that they could try running a searching on...

I am therefore assuming that their wallet file was named something like "nameUnrelatedToBitcoin.dat"... and they removed the .dat part... so they can't just search for "wallet" either Tongue

I'm thinking maybe the pywallet tool might be your best bet. It can scan drives looking for private keys... so may be able to find your wallet file(https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=38004.0)?
full member
Activity: 158
Merit: 113
Please clarify, what do you need?
Where is your wallet file, and what do you want to do with it exactly - the last post is somewhat confusing.
sr. member
Activity: 348
Merit: 251
Thanks for this but PoolA seems to be bringing up all sorts of stuff that will make it difficult to test all files in the bitcoin client.....can you think or find something more unique by any chance? Smiley
member
Activity: 149
Merit: 22
🔴🔵 FoxMixer.com 🔵🔴
You could try search contents for "poolA", "poolB", ...
Or if you have added a label to a receive address, you could search file contents for that specific label.
sr. member
Activity: 348
Merit: 251
When I say .dat I refer to the original bitcoin wallet program....
the extension was removed for security reasons

Is it a hex comparison tool or a hex search application or something?

Thanks.
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