Bitcoin Forum

i sent money to my bitcoin core wallet address thinking it was ready to go but the wallet had not finished syncing and i cant download it because i have no memory what should i do when it shows the wallet it doesnt show the money in there im so sad it was my hard earned money

You have several options

#1 (potential risky due to exposed private key) export the private key into a different wallet, e.g. electrum
#2 (easiest) set bitcoin core to prune, it will still download and verify the data, but not safe the majority of the data.
#3 (advanced) create an raw transaction, sign it with the unsynced core and broadcast it online

how do i "prune" it? and how do i export the private key i see nothing about a prrivate key in the program menu

I suggest you to read here:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Running_Bitcoin

you find the prune section directly, hope that helps.

To run core in prune mode you'll have to start it with -prune=550 command or by entering prune=550 in bitcoin.conf file. If you don't have bitcoin.conf in your data directory (that's C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin for windows by default) just create one by renaming a blank text file.

For the private keys, just read this > https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Transferring_coins_from_Bitcoin-Qt_to_Electrum .

In order to prune it you need to create a bitcoin.conf file in the correct directory depending on your OS. See the post by o_solo_miner for a sample file[1] and typical location for major systems[2]. After you have created the file and added your prune setting just restart bitcoin core. 550 is the lowest accepted value.

The guide linked by steven0021 should cover the move to electrum. Just make sure you properly secured the seed that is given to you when you setup the electrum wallet. It will cover all your private keys and thus all your coins for that wallet. A safe and secure place on paper is usually used to store it. Depending on the amount we are talking about you should consider several backups in different locations.

[1] https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Running_Bitcoin#Sample_Bitcoin.conf
[2] https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Running_Bitcoin#Bitcoin.conf_Configuration_File

No point in pruning. You will still have to download the whole blockchain to verify the block headers.

Go into your roaming folder and copy the wallet.dat file from your Bitcoin folder. Then put it into a wallet like Electrum.

We are talking about memory, NOT bandwidth. The previous blocks are deleted as you go so the size at anytime shouldn't exceed the prune size.
Not many wallets, in fact, none that I know of will support importing wallet.dat. Please at least verify this before advising newbies.

Just to clarify, your money is safe. The wallet just doesn't know that it has it yet.

Electrum supports wallet.dat, doesn't it? You drag and drop the wallet file into the seed input box.

I guess I was horribly misinformed. Your best bet would be to do a simple "dumpprivkey *Your bitcoin address*" command in your qt console, and then input that private key into electrum.

The fastest method would certainly be getting the private key and using it in another wallet. Just make sure that the whole process.is followed in a secure environment.