thanks guys for replying to my posts, really appreciate ur help on this matter, due to being caught up trading cryptos i haven't replied here,
unfortunately, the laptop from 2009 is far too clogged up and slow, I'm unable to even open the documents folder let alone c drive and search/move any files let alone btc core wallet files,
my local repair guy is recommending rather than upgrading the ram and trying to fix up the laptop so its workable it would be easier to move the hard drive and retrieve any files via connecting said hardrive to another device,
this shouldn't comprise right?
That is correct.
For future reference, although I don't think you deleted your wallet file, it is far safer to recover a deleted file with the hard drive taken out and put it inside a disk enclosure with a USB port, than to attempt recovery while running the operating system on the same disk as your lost files, because swap memory that's constantly written to the disk can overwrite the area of the disk the file once was in.
Also dual-booting another operating system (
on a different disk[/u]) or a DVD or USB stick provides equivalent protection for the deleted files.