Bitcoin Forum

I have been searching the fourm for the answer to this question. Sorry if the answer is here and I haven't found it.
Here is the situation, I currently have an online bitcoin-qt wallet that I scan and update data every few days. I also have a wallet.dat backed up on a usb that is encrypted and has a passphrase.
I currently have bitcoins sent to the encrypted wallet on the usb from the mining pool.
Does this keep the coins safe?
To use coins I would swap the the dat files to access usb encrypted wallet. That is stored offine.
Does this work or will it work? Pretty new to this.
Or should one have coins sent to encryped online wallet then transfer to another encrypted wallet backup stored on a usb?
Thank you in advance,

Cannot answer in details about the particular situation you describe.

What I know is that typically one creates a wallet in an offline computer (that is, a computer that will never be connected to the internet), and when you want to send bitcoin to that wallet you would generate a receiving address that you will then use in your online computer to give to whoever is going to send you bitcoin. The idea is that your wallet files are never online. All that is shown online are your receiving addresses. That as far as receiving bitcoins, if your intention is to have a safer wallet offline for saving.

For sending the process varies. Personally I like the client Armory which allows this that I am describing (see "watch-only" wallets). It also would allow you to send bitcoins from that offline wallet using a process called offline transaction.

If you are serious about your investment perhaps you should invest some time to learn how to use Armory. If not, maybe Electrum allows something similar in a more streamlined way.

Pretty sure you're fine with this. The coins will be safe and are stored on the blockchain for you to redeem them when you load up your wallet.

Youre fine, offline encrypted wallet will show your coins as soon as you load it into bitcoin-qt and fully sync

Fine as long as your computer is really kept virus-free.

you could always make a paper wallet on a virus free computer and store the coins there.  I'd make multiple small ones which is what I will do with the paper wallet I made in my sig.