I think I am all good. Thanks Pieter for your input, maybe that is so. but I was worried as none of the web blockchain transaction displayers showed a thing, but core was happy to display all funds gone. So I think it was just not getting out at all with Bitcoin Core, even though it was providing the “not found” (by blockchain etc) hashes of transactions.
I started a (Kleopatra verified!) Electrum wallet. This seems to be a Godsend. So much nicer to use, and no waiting for the blockchain. More data at the fingertips, specify fiat, it knows your capital gain, etc. etc.
Yes, I know the blockchain on your own device is the most robust way of handling your BTC but, oh the wait! The size! The stress (in my case)! The money lost whilst waiting for that chain to download the first time I bought in 2017 (which I didn’t know at the time but I don’t think I had to do. I could have bought 6 months before the peak, instead of the 2017 peak). The recent repartitioning / merging of hard drives and moving & deleting that had to go on to handle 300 Gb+ of chain… The many hours left on overnight even to catch up from 2015 onwards (when used in 2017-18 I had downloaded the whole chain but for some reason I lost a whole batch when I tuned back into crypto now things are moving again.) Overall, the headache of the locally held chain for me is something, as a newbie, I could have really done without (not to mention the sleepless night last night!)
Electrum took my private key and automatically acknowledged the full 0.2 BTC. I then made a transaction and for whatever reason I could see much better the satoshi per byte level and compare it with https://bitcoinfees.earn.com/#fees to make sure there was plenty enough to get it moving with the miners. Now the transaction is in progress and it’s confirmed three times so far… a few more and it will be where I need it.
In the end the solution was so simple, I’m very disappointed in the staff at the ‘exchange’ who didn’t know more to give me the tip. You think if you did this stuff all day you would at least have a clue about core wallets and potential problems/fixes. Another hardware data recovery mob that I spoke to here in Australia said that they often had people calling up with similar requests, but they couldn’t help either, citing “some USA companies are beginning to get into this sort of recovery.”
If there’s any further problem I’ll add it here, but otherwise assume happy endings (SFW) from one bitcoin ‘newbie’ that was scared witless he’d lost about 15 grand Aussie about half a day ago thru to now.
–Wow that was fast, 7 confirmations and my money is in the right spot. Phew! Hope this helps anyone in a similar space.
