Bitcoin Forum

I fired up my bitcoin client yesterday to get my blockchain up to date, after a few hours my laptop, without warning, switched off.....after a long boot up I finally get the client going again and find i'm 279 weeks behind.....I left it on overnight and this morning it seems to be stuck on 13 weeks and says "reindexing blocks on disk"

what to do ??

It has changed to 12 weeks so maybe its just being really slow, my question should be, can you back up the block chain data so that if things go tits up again you dont have to download the whole thing ?

Yea, just make a copy the bitcoin roaming folder to someplace else and if anything happens paste it again in the windows
files.

The location will be C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin

You can also download torrents of the latest blockchain or you can even use a lightweight client like Electrum or Mycelium that doesn't download the blockchain.

Also you can write a simple file .bat to start the wallet and set the default data directory inside the btc one, to easier a bit the blockchain manteinance.

I would recommend that you use a client that doesn't need blockchain. Much easier and no disadvantage.

Ok thanks

You can download the torrent here. https://bitcoin.org/bin/blockchain/

But since your download is almost done (just 12 weeks to go), you don't need to use bootstrap torrent. :)

Bitcoin Core does have some advantages.
The most important one IMO is the easy-to-use coin control feature introduced in 0.9.0.

Unless you are in a rush for the whole block, use a blockless client for a bit while the core client updates, its what i do on new machines.

Yes I concede there are some disadvantages but to the majority of users, particularly if they are asking these kinds of questions it tends to be easy to use an spv client.

That's true. Different wallet clients have different advantages and disadvantages (or no one would use it and the project would be long dead ) :P
IMO, SPV like Electrum is pretty user-friendly (easy backup of the seed, no need to store the whole blockchain, etc) and is a great choice for all newbies.

You could also use an online wallet like blockchain.info. I use it and its great.

I would advice maybe use a litebitcoinwallet.
They dont have to download the whole blockchain.
So they are synced pretty fast , I myself use multibit for a while now.
I believe you also have a few others but you will have to decide for yourself.
You can use your wallet.dat file for any kind of wallet right?

The blockchain data is still there. It just needs to be re-indexed, because the sudden shutdown corrupted something. No need to download anything. The closer the re-indexing gets to the latest, current block the slower it will be, so it might look like it is stuck.



No.

 If I use Electrum can i just send my bitcoins to the new wallet ?

Also what is a 'watching-only version of an existing wallet' ?

Yes, just send them to the address generated by Electrum. A watching only version is basically a 'wallet' that monitors the incoming transactions of specified addresses without actually offering the ability to send out transactions. They are used in cold storage mechanisms where you want to see how much you have without compromising security - and you can create txs online then sign them offline then broadcast them online, which means your safe.

I've sent all my bitcoin to my new electrum wallet  :)  Do i need to leave the old wallet running until the transaction is confirmed ? or can I close it  or even uninstall it now if i dont need it ?

Make sure the transaction has 1 or 2 confirmations so you know it's picked up by the network.

No, but you certainly want to save the wallet. You never know, someone might send coin's to your old address. If you loose that wallet you've lost those coins.

I think Electrum is deterministic right? So you can't import other keys into it?

You can import other keys into it with the caveat that those imported keys are not recoverable from seed like the other addresses are.

Got it, thanks for the correction. ;)  So, does it have a sweep function for paper wallets? I haven't checked it out. I've been very happy with the blockchain.info wallet. I've never once d/l'ed the bitcoin blockchain.

The best is to update the blockchain.

well its not a proble mwhen you created you wallet or while using your wallet the blockchain automatically make backup of the wallet and send to the email address.. please go and see if any backup sent to you wallet if so you are secured othrewise you get out of your bitcoins ...

I m feeling so sorry for that.. :(

I'd like to add that it would be nice to the bitcoin network if you carried on running bitcoin with the blockchain.

You can still use electrum for your transactions but only bitcoin core will actively work as a node and help out with network traffic.

If you have a decent PC and don't mind the extra overheads of running a node (bandwidth usage, CPU & RAM usage) then you'd be doing your bit to support bitcoin.

Actually the disadvantage is that you need to trust other computers to be honest about the blockchain, while f you run a copy of the blockchain yourself you are less at risk.

Having the blockchain makes you a node as well, which make the network more secure.