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Files · Discoveries
I found an old .dat file on a drive: how to tell if it’s worth anything
Before getting excited or spending money, there is a check you can do yourself, free and in twenty minutes, that tells you whether that file holds anything. And there is a prior question worth answering honestly: is it yours?
The uncomfortable question, first
If the file turned up on a second-hand drive, on a computer inherited from a stranger or on a machine you were given at work, it isn’t a find: it is someone else’s money. In practically any jurisdiction, trying to spend it is a crime. I don’t work cases without proof of ownership, and anyone who does should worry you.
How to tell whether it holds a balance, risk-free
- Make two copies of the file before anything else and keep the original untouched.
- Install a compatible wallet and open it read-only if the program allows. Many protected files let you see addresses and balance without the password.
- Write down the addresses you see.
- Look them up one by one on a block explorer. There you will see the current balance and the full history.
Step four decides everything, and it is free. If the addresses are at zero with an outgoing movement from 2014, the wallet was emptied eleven years ago and there is nothing to recover. If they hold a balance with no movement since, you have something real.
The three most common disappointments
- The wallet was emptied back then and the file is only a memento. By far the most common outcome.
- It is an old copy of the wallet and the money sits in addresses that copy doesn’t know about. Very common with files predating 2013.
- It holds dust: a few thousandths that were worthless then and don’t justify the work now. See when the value isn’t worth it.
If it turns out there is something
Then your case is a classic password recovery and the outlook depends on the usual things: how much you remember from that period, and how old the file is — which here works in your favour. See wallet.dat with a forgotten password.