If your purpose is Restoring wallet.dat, you do not need to run the Bitcoin core client to obtain your coins. You can extract the private key and import it in Electrum or any SPV wallet. These wallets do not require you to download more than 500 GB.
To do this, make several backup copies of wallet.dat.
Download bitcoincore Verify signature Open wallet.dat Enter password.
Create a file and save the path.
Open console in bitcoincore and type dumpwallet <file path>
Hello,
thanks for the reply. Could you please provide the commands in sequence?
Also, wouldn't Bitcoin Core client start syncing the blockchain as soon as I start it?
Kindly share the steps
it would be great if you could also share the steps to import the whole wallet into Electrum instead of just one private key. I'm reading online that it is better to sweep rather than import into Electrum. Also, my wallet is a bit old so I'm assuming some of the address types might be legacy. I wonder if I need to take some extra steps for such type of addresses