I ejected the drive. The file stayed cold again. But for ten minutes, while the CPU screamed, that old wallet.dat was the hottest thing in the room.
: Most wallet.dat files were encrypted. If you have forgotten the password, you may need specialized brute-force tools or recovery services. old walletdat hot
"Old" files often suffer from bit rot. If your wallet.dat won't open, you may see an error like CDBException or Database Environment Error . I ejected the drive