Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin => Bitcoin Technical Support => Topic started by: hongus on April 09, 2012, 10:27:16 AM



Title: Reformatting Computer. What to backup?
Post by: hongus on April 09, 2012, 10:27:16 AM
I run Windows 7 and I think I need to reformat soon because it's getting pretty slow. If I were to do this I have to backup wallet.dat, correct? Is there a way I can backup the whole blockchain so I don't have to redownload the whole thing? Also is there anything else I need to backup besides those two things?


Title: Re: Reformatting Computer. What to backup?
Post by: Pieter Wuille on April 09, 2012, 10:30:32 AM
Yes, you can backup blk0001.dat and blkindex.dat from the same direcotry, and restore them there before running bitcoin again.

This should prevent you from needing to download the chain again.

Make sure Bitcoin is not running while making the backup.


Title: Re: Reformatting Computer. What to backup?
Post by: worldinacoin on April 09, 2012, 11:41:23 AM
The wallet is the essential, the rest of the chain is more or less optional.  I will just backup the wallet.