Bitcoin Forum

I'm using QT Client, client name Satoshi, client version v0.7.0-beta

I'm 35245 blocks behind. I haven't had this computer turned on for 6 months because it's broken and I bought a new one. It has a faulty hard drive, and the Dell tech is finally ready to swap out the drive, except I don't want to lose all my bitcoins.

Its trying to catch up but it's taking forever.

http://grab.by/rAXY

It's been running for 24 hours straight and it moved from 82% - 86%

Is there any way to get my bitcoins out without waiting for it to catch up? It's going to take a week or more at this rate.

You might want to update to the latest client, v0.8.5, your version is quite old.

Additionally, you could backup wallet.dat to another disk to secure your coins. You should do that anyway, what if your harddisk was irreparably damaged and you had no backup?

If its been off for six months and you have managed without the bitcoins, surely waiting a couple of days isn't that bad?

I believe there are other clients that don't require the full blockchain to be downloaded. I've never used any so I don't have any names, but google is your friend.

Update.

10 seconds on google and I found this page:- https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Clients which should be of use.

Out of sync by 35000 blocks is quite normal. You need to sync your wallet regularly to avoid this problem.

Whats the easiest way to back it up?

I've avoided doing that because I've heard horror stories of people corrupting their wallet.dat file while trying to back it up.

Try https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Securing_your_wallet

FYI I encript the wallet.dat with a high strenght password ie over 16 characters, then copy it twice to three separate usb sticks. Giving me six files on three devices all with high encryption. These are cold wallets, ie not connected to the Internet.

Then rename the wallet.dat, wallet-org.dat and reload one at a time one copy of each of the USB sticks, after decrypting, run qt to make sure you know the password and the file isn't corrupted. You should see your correct balance. If you have any problems recover the wall-org.dat file, and start again.

If all works as it should shred (not just delete) all wallet.dat files including the wall-org.dat file.

Re run qt it will make a new empty wallet.dat ie if zero value.

Always use a hot wallet with an amount if BTC to reduce the times you need to access your cold wallet.

I hope this makes some sense. It didn't seem to write out as easy as I can do it.

Being your own bank isn't always easy.....

Ps don't store wallets files online unless high encryption is used.

If I do this, do I still have to wait for it to sync?

Yeah I transferred about 5 bitcoins to this wallet so I guess I have to wait for it to sync :(

If you really want to use those coins, you may upload your wallet to some online service, pay using those bitcoins, wait for your local copy of the blockchain to complete, regenerate a new wallet and send those coins back to your local wallet.

Newer versions of Bitcoin are more highly optimized; they use a new database format and only fully verify recent transactions that have happened after a trusted "checkpoint" block. Your version also has old payment and fee rules and some security issues. Update.

The wallet.dat stores the keys for sending your bitcoins to other people. As long as you have a copy of your wallet, the bitcoins are yours. It can be backed up using the "backup wallet" feature in the client's file menu at any time, or the wallet.dat file copied directly after Bitcoin is completely closed (no tray icon or background processing).

To send a payment, your copy of bitcoin-qt also needs to be current and reflect the correct balance by having downloaded a full copy of the blockchain. The blockchain is the record of all payments made on the network, the public ledger that lets your client know how much is in every Bitcoin address and identify valid payments to you. This takes time as you have discovered if you have fallen significantly behind; the last 35,000 blocks is a few gigabytes to download.

Your bitcoin balance in your wallet may be stored in many addresses within the wallet, some not presented to you in the user interface. It is possible to export keys or use other services to spend your money, but I would recommend sticking with bitcoin-qt if you have a desktop pc and a high-speed internet connection.

newer versions will process the blocks much faster, as other ppl mentioned

you could also be connected to some slow peers.  whenever I fall far behind on the blockchain, I change bitcoin.conf to 1 max connection and just connect to one node (connect=xx.xx.xx.xx) that I know will send blocks just as fast as I can process 'em

Uh oh now I'm getting this message:

http://grab.by/rFMg

EXCEPTION: 11DbException
DB::put: Not enough space
C:\Program Files (x86)\Bitcoin\bitcoin-qt.exe in ProcessMessages()


^^^
Does anyone know what to do to solve that?

I read the forum and I'm trying the update to 0.8.5 to see if that helps...

Upgrading to that latest version of the bitcoin qt client worked!

I also ran the program this time with my graphics processor... I'm not sure if that had anything to do it, but it was supposed to take another 3 days to finish syncing, and I came home after a 6 hour shift at work and it was done.

http://new.tinygrab.com/cf027c64811fb674d23078b081ae689c4a0a678ef2.png