user96165: I found a wallet.dat file in my backup folder, which I recall last using in 2013. I'm curious to see what the BTC contents are, which I recall being a really small fraction of BTC.
In any case, is there anything preventing me from just installing Bitcoin Core and replacing the default wallet.dat to recover my backed-up wallet? What is the recommended way to recover such an old wallet.dat file?

user48884: 
In any case, is there anything preventing me from just installing Bitcoin Core and replacing the default wallet.dat to recover my backed-up wallet? What is the recommended way to recover such an old wallet.dat file?

You can do just that. In fact, that's exactly the way to restore a backup.

96165: <p>I found a wallet.dat file in my backup folder, which I recall last using in 2013. I'm curious to see what the BTC contents are, which I recall being a really small fraction of BTC.</p>

<p>In any case, is there anything preventing me from just installing Bitcoin Core and replacing the default wallet.dat to recover my backed-up wallet? What is the recommended way to recover such an old wallet.dat file?</p>
 48884: <blockquote>
  <p>In any case, is there anything preventing me from just installing Bitcoin Core and replacing the default wallet.dat to recover my backed-up wallet? What is the recommended way to recover such an old wallet.dat file?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>You can do just that. In fact, that's exactly the way to restore a backup.</p>
