how to use bwallet.dat file?

[eladbi]

Hello,
Several years ago I bought 1-2 bitcoins from a friends, he sent me the bitcoin but I dont remeber how and which wallet I had.
The only thing I have in my hands is an old bwallet.dat file - can you tell me how can I get my bitcoins back? Please help, I made searches in google but it didnt help.

Elad

[Fremont]

Hello,
Several years ago I bought 1-2 bitcoins from a friends, he sent me the bitcoin but I dont remeber how and which wallet I had.
The only thing I have in my hands is an old bwallet.dat file - can you tell me how can I get my bitcoins back? Please help, I made searches in google but it didnt help.

Elad

Hi Elad,

If that is the original wallet.dat file that for the wallet you received your bitcoins to you might be in luck! Though it may not be possible to recover your bitcoins if you created a password, I think that in 2012 Bitcoin-qt did not have a password feature.

IMPORTANT: Do not give this 'wallet.dat' file to anybody. Do not send it to any other person. Think of it like your own physical wallet with physical cash in it. No matter who asks for it, even if it is somebody here, do not send it to them or otherwise provide them with access to it.

As the wallet.dat file is an old version you may have trouble importing it into newer Bitcoin wallet software. The first thing I would advise you to do is make a copy of the wallet.dat file, put it onto a USB stick, and then eject the USB stick from your computer. This way even if you make a mistake or screw up the wallet.dat file when trying to import it into a newer Bitcoin wallet, you can copy the backup back onto your computer to try again.

If you finally manage to import your wallet.dat file into a newer wallet I would advise sending the bitcoins out of that wallet to a new wallet - you can find lots of different wallets to suit various needs in our Wallets section (we seem to be having an issue with wallets not displaying at the moment, please check back later.) Once this is complete, you will need to securely erase the USB stick you were using - you can do so using any of the methods listed here.

The below information should help you - it refers to Bitcoin Core, but we're fervent supporters of Bitcoin Unlimited and I would suggest utilising that Bitcoin Unlimited instead:

You will have to use [a full Bitcoin client wallet] because no other wallet uses the wallet.dat format. Furthermore, the wallet format has changed over time, and only the latest version of Bitcoin Core will work with all of them. Just download and install Bitcoin Core, start it and let it create the datadir. Then stop Bitcoin Core, put the wallet.dat file in the Bitcoin Core data folder, replacing whatever wallet.dat file is automatically created, and start it again. You may need to start Bitcoin Core with -upgradewallet for the wallet to work properly.

If you need any assistance with the above don't hesitate to post here and either I or somebody else will be glad to help.

Fremont

[eladbi]

Thank you very much for the detailed answer.

I could not understand how to preform the main issue, you wrote me "If you finally manage to import your wallet.dat file into a newer wallet" - but how I should import it and to where?
Should i try to open accounts in several ones untill I can manage to import it?

Thank you
Elad