Quote from: wersaup on March 18, 2016, 01:25:41 PM

Hey there.

In a couple hours i will receive back a laptop from the police that was seized in 2011. The computer contains an old bitcoin instance, if i remember correctly it should be around version 0.28, just short of 180k blocks. The wallet on said installation should contain several hundred bitcoin, so obviously before doing anything I'm gonna back the whole thing up.

Smart.

Quote from: wersaup on March 18, 2016, 01:25:41 PM

My question is -

A) the computer in question runs windows xp and a debian etch or lenny... Will a current bitcoin-qt run on windows xp?

Why bother? Just take the wallet.dat and sync with a modern machine, it will be faster anyway.

Quote from: wersaup on March 18, 2016, 01:25:41 PM

B) if i just upgrade the bitcoint client(i know there was some break in wallet compatibility and probably more than one libdb upgrade in between, which normally should have just transitioned) will it convert the wallet to current standards and be able to use it?

AFAIK, yes.

Quote from: wersaup on March 18, 2016, 01:25:41 PM

C) if not, is the old pywallet still around and compatible allowing me to just dump the private keys?

-> https://github.com/jackjack-jj/pywallet

Quote from: wersaup on March 18, 2016, 01:25:41 PM

D) if none of the above, what should i do?

Ps: i know for certain that the wallet isnt encrypted - the feature was too new for me back then to be used, besides the root partition is crypted(and i still have keys)

You sure the coins are still no there? 5 years in the hands of someone else without encryption...