Is your node pruned? If you're trying to import old wallets into a pruned node, you'll get errors. I've never seen that particular error, however, but I don't have any wallets that old.
As for the bitcoin-wallet tool, I noticed it's not include when you install QT on Windows. It is included in the Windows Zip file, however. You can download that from bitcoincore.org. You'll find the bitcoin-wallet tool in the "bin" subdirectory. Here's the help menu for the "bitcoin-wallet" tool.
bitcoin-wallet -h
Bitcoin Core bitcoin-wallet version v28.0.0
bitcoin-wallet is an offline tool for creating and interacting with Bitcoin Core wallet files.
By default bitcoin-wallet will act on wallets in the default mainnet wallet directory in the datadir.
To change the target wallet, use the -datadir, -wallet and -regtest/-signet/-testnet/-testnet4 arguments.
Usage:
bitcoin-wallet [options]
Options:
-?
Print this help message and exit
-datadir=
Specify data directory
-descriptors
Create descriptors wallet. Only for 'create'
-dumpfile=
When used with 'dump', writes out the records to this file. When used
with 'createfromdump', loads the records into a new wallet.
-format=
The format of the wallet file to create. Either "bdb" or "sqlite". Only
used with 'createfromdump'
-legacy
Create legacy wallet. Only for 'create'
-version
Print version and exit
-wallet=
Specify wallet name
Debugging/Testing options:
-debug=
Output debugging information (default: 0).
-printtoconsole
Send trace/debug info to console (default: 1 when no -debug is true, 0
otherwise).
-withinternalbdb
Use the internal Berkeley DB parser when dumping a Berkeley DB wallet
file (default: false)
Chain selection options:
-chain=
Use the chain (default: main). Allowed values: main, test,
testnet4, signet, regtest
-signet
Use the signet chain. Equivalent to -chain=signet. Note that the network
is defined by the -signetchallenge parameter
-signetchallenge
Blocks must satisfy the given script to be considered valid (only for
signet networks; defaults to the global default signet test
network challenge)
-signetseednode
Specify a seed node for the signet network, in the hostname[:port]
format, e.g. sig.net:1234 (may be used multiple times to specify
multiple seed nodes; defaults to the global default signet test
network seed node(s))
-testnet
Use the testnet3 chain. Equivalent to -chain=test. Support for testnet3
is deprecated and will be removed in an upcoming release.
Consider moving to testnet4 now by using -testnet4.
-testnet4
Use the testnet4 chain. Equivalent to -chain=testnet4.
Commands:
create
Create new wallet file
createfromdump
Create new wallet file from dumped records
dump
Print out all of the wallet key-value records
info
Get wallet info
salvage
Attempt to recover private keys from a corrupt wallet. Warning:
'salvage' is experimental.
