thank you for the advice, im just wondering do I need to do this step, as I don't believe my wallet.dat file is corrupted ?
would it not be easier to import said wallet.dat file to a new btc wallet
Pywallet is a last resort to recover from a damaged wallet. If your wallet.dat is not corrupted, you should be able to load it using a fresh installation of Bitcoin Core. And if your last transaction was made in 2013, it shouldn't take too long to synchronize the first few years for your balance to show up. You'll only know for sure after synchronizing completely, or looking up your addresses in a block explorer.
Make sure your computer is clean before doing anything though!