Pre HD wallet.dat into new Bitcoin Core

[morbius55]

I have a recovered wallet.dat file from an old Bitcoin Core that I have recovered using Pywallet with the kind help of forum member HCP. If I use that wallet.dat in the latest Bitcoin Core with the useHD=0 and rescan options and it is synced, then will it show any Bitcoins that are in there. Thanks.

[uartasic]

i recovered a wallet from 2013 and loaded it into vers 14 of core (fully updated) and all i noticed it said was "rewinding blocks", then hey presto the blocks reindexed and my coins showed up.

not sure if pywallet does anything special to it but i guess as long as its readable it should synch accordingly. i didnt have to do anything special for my wallet.dat although it was quite old.

[Mountaingoat]

You can always download the old wallet and export the private key then in the new wallet import the private key.

[cellard]

You can always download the old wallet and export the private key then in the new wallet import the private key.

The most common advice i've seen to start using the HD format is to empty is to send your own bitcoins into a new empty wallet, so you would need to create an empty wallet, create receiving addresses (as many as needed for privacy reasons) and then send the BTC there. Newly created wallets are HD by default since 0.13 I think.

Sweeping private keys is not recommended because it could be fatal if your computer was compromised and attacker saw them.

The good news is, apparently (according to achow here) version 0.16 will automatically convert your wallet into an HD wallet so you don't need to waste fees doing this.

[morbius55]

You can always download the old wallet and export the private key then in the new wallet import the private key.

The most common advice i've seen to start using the HD format is to empty is to send your own bitcoins into a new empty wallet, so you would need to create an empty wallet, create receiving addresses (as many as needed for privacy reasons) and then send the BTC there. Newly created wallets are HD by default since 0.13 I think.

Sweeping private keys is not recommended because it could be fatal if your computer was compromised and attacker saw them.

The good news is, apparently (according to achow here) version 0.16 will automatically convert your wallet into an HD wallet so you don't need to waste fees doing this.

So balance would not show up even using HD=0 command (assuming it contains some BTC)? Core crashes without that command with recovered wallet.dat. Thanks.

[Mountaingoat]

You can always download the old wallet and export the private key then in the new wallet import the private key.

The most common advice i've seen to start using the HD format is to empty is to send your own bitcoins into a new empty wallet, so you would need to create an empty wallet, create receiving addresses (as many as needed for privacy reasons) and then send the BTC there. Newly created wallets are HD by default since 0.13 I think.

Sweeping private keys is not recommended because it could be fatal if your computer was compromised and attacker saw them.

The good news is, apparently (according to achow here) version 0.16 will automatically convert your wallet into an HD wallet so you don't need to waste fees doing this.

I have no experience with Bitcoin Core, I was just giving general advice on how to export a private key.

Are wallet.dat files from for example Electrum compatible with Bitcoin Core?

[ranochigo]

Sweeping private keys is not recommended because it could be fatal if your computer was compromised and attacker saw them.

Wait you lost me. If your computer used to sweep was compromised, your coins would be lost anyways.

Are wallet.dat files from for example Electrum compatible with Bitcoin Core?

Not at all. Bitcoin Core's wallet.dat format is only compatible with their own wallets, at least among the reputable ones.

[achow101]

The good news is, apparently (according to achow here) version 0.16 will automatically convert your wallet into an HD wallet so you don't need to waste fees doing this.

Only if you do -upgradewallet. Also it may not be in 0.16.

So balance would not show up even using HD=0 command (assuming it contains some BTC)? Core crashes without that command with recovered wallet.dat. Thanks.

No, it will show up. The wallet format is not different at all. The reason it is crashing is because when you recovered the wallet you are missing a few fields that should be in the wallet (and the software expects them) but the recover missed them. This effectively corrupts your wallet. Using -usehd=0 works around this issue. You will have full access to whatever coins are associated with the private keys in your wallet.