Quote from: morbius55 on Today at 06:20:00 PM

Quote from: ETFbitcoin on Today at 09:43:55 AM

Quote from: strig1 on May 16, 2021, 06:49:24 PM

I tried using 2 versions of Bitcoin Core (0.21.1 and 0.8.6) to read the wallet.dat and was given the warning "wallet.dat corrupt, salvage failed".

If you see error message when you open Bitcoin Core normally, you can external Bitcoin Core tools to salvage your wallet properly. Check this thread, Salvagewallet in latest Bitcoin core.

Quote from: strig1 on May 16, 2021, 06:49:24 PM

My next step is to recover the HDD using GetDataBack instead of Recuva, and then reattempt what I have done so far.

I strongly suggest you to make RAW copy of your HDD using tools such as http://www.hddguru.com/software/HDD-Raw-Copy-Tool/. After doing that, you can use the software to scan the RAW copy instead.

If you're searching text with a hex editor then you need to type key!. The exclamation mark is important, but is not used for the master key (mkey). You might not get a hit on the word name as that doesn't always appear in a wallet.dat. It is another term for address. If the wallet was encrypted by using a passphrase, then the private keys should be searched by the term ckey! if using a hex editor.

I searched for 'mkey', 'ckey', 'key!', and 'key' using a Hex Editor and I only got 1 match for 'key', nothing else. Can I do anything with this? I am in the process of making a raw copy of my HDD using HDD-Raw-Copy-Tool and searching that for a wallet.dat file. Will probably have to delay that until the weekend though.