Yay! Managed to import all the keys now. Had to first do a normal --dumpwallet on the file, then run the --recover command. It probably reads from the text file instead of the wallet.

"The new wallet ./recovered_wallet_1384453446.dat contains the 306 recovered keys"

Which way is the fastest to check the balance?

Do I have to resync the bitcoin program to check balance, or just use the new wallet?