Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin => Bitcoin Technical Support => Topic started by: Bitware on June 01, 2015, 07:29:18 AM



Title: Is there any important information outside of the Bitcoin wallet?
Post by: Bitware on June 01, 2015, 07:29:18 AM
If I want to copy my Bitcoin data directory, remove the wallet, and give to people so they dont have to spend days upgrading their new bitcoin install, do I need to be worried about any data in any files outside of the wallet.dat containing any important data, like addresses or private keys or anything else?

If so, what files should i not include in the copy?


Title: Re: Is there any important information outside of the Bitcoin wallet?
Post by: NyeFe on June 01, 2015, 08:34:21 AM
If I want to copy my Bitcoin data directory, remove the wallet, and give to people so they dont have to spend days upgrading their new bitcoin install, do I need to be worried about any data in any files outside of the wallet.dat containing any important data, like addresses or private keys or anything else?

If so, what files should i not include in the copy?

You don't need to worry about anything, your private keys are kept, managed & encrypted in the selected wallet.dat directory only, unless you've copied it to other places.


Title: Re: Is there any important information outside of the Bitcoin wallet?
Post by: tspacepilot on June 02, 2015, 01:41:14 AM
Right, but you don't have to give them a copy of your bitcoin download, you can just point to one of the mirror services who have the pre-downloaded blockchain.

There are some instructions in this forum!   https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=51456.0


Title: Re: Is there any important information outside of the Bitcoin wallet?
Post by: Bitware on June 02, 2015, 07:45:49 AM
I wanted a way to more quickly distribute the blockchain to people - especially those on older computers - without sacrificing my important data. I've got an old laptop that I keep nestled away as an emergency backup and it took me between 4-5 days to to download the blockchain on a new Bitcoin install.

I removed my wallet, compressed it down to 29gb, split it into 2 archives, and uploaded it to a file service. If anyone wants to try it, let me know if it's working for you. If not, then I'll have to go with a torrent. It's down in my sig.

Thanks for your help, folks.


Title: Re: Is there any important information outside of the Bitcoin wallet?
Post by: tspacepilot on June 02, 2015, 02:55:58 PM
I wanted a way to more quickly distribute the blockchain to people - especially those on older computers - without sacrificing my important data. I've got an old laptop that I keep nestled away as an emergency backup and it took me between 4-5 days to to download the blockchain on a new Bitcoin install.

I removed my wallet, compressed it down to 29gb, split it into 2 archives, and uploaded it to a file service. If anyone wants to try it, let me know if it's working for you. If not, then I'll have to go with a torrent. It's down in my sig.

Thanks for your help, folks.

One suggestion, use gzipped tarball (tgz) or zip file (zip).  rar is not standard and not easy to decompress without having to download extra software.  Just a suggestion.