Bitcoin Forum

Hi,

I wish to know the restore procedure of a wallet. I'm backing up wallet.dat on a daily basis.
I'm not sure (due to security of bitcoin) if I can simply use the wallet.dat on a new PC

If I get a new PC, Install bitcoin, let it update the block index, then overwrite the wallet.dat it creates with my backup, will it work? Or do i need to backup other things aswell?

You do not need to back up your wallet so often, it is counter-productive, as you have to completely close Bitcoin before accessing the file, and if you are replacing the old back up with your new copy you might mess up. As long as you have a backup or two of the wallet.dat that are safe, were made when Bitcoin was completely closed, and absolutely will be there if recovery is needed, the only time you need a newer one is after you have created several more addresses that weren't previously used (up to 100).

The wallet is portable, it can be placed on a different installation when Bitcoin is completely closed. It would be preferable to not download the blockchain to the newest block before putting a different wallet into place, as your current balance in the wallet file is updated as the blocks are received, and new payments may be missed, requiring you to run the bitcoin -rescan option to update to the correct balance.

Hey,

So I'm just trying to backup my QT wallet now. I've got a copy of my wallet.dat file, a backup.dat file that was created hitting backup in the file menu and I've also got a copy of the private key, is that all I need to restore if my pc fails? I'm guessing it's probably not safe keeping the private key with the backup files?

And you don't have to periodically backup your wallet.dat file because bitcoins are on the network right? You're wallet just accesses them...

Thanks,