Bitcoin created 8gb of files, filling up my SSD, are these needed?

[Neverest]

It took a long time to start and synchronize the Wallet. It appears that almost 8gb of files were created in the appdate/roaming/bitcoin folder.

As this is a considerable portion of my SSD:
- Are these files forever needed or can I remove them?
- Will these grow with all new transactions? If so, then they might grow into dozens of gb?
- Can these files be moved if they can not be deleted, without haviong to re-synch?

Thanks!

[Gabi]

The bitcoin-qt client is a full node client, it download the whole blockchain, wich contain all the transactions of the bitcoin network since it started. And it is connected to other nodes and sends and receive the blocks and relay the transactions.
You can keep these files on another folder with the -datadir command, not a good idea to keep 8 GB of blockchain on a SSD

Or you can use a lightweight client like Multibit or a online wallet like Blockchain.info

[holy_cow]

There are other applications that don't have to download the whole blockchain as well.

http://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet

[Neverest]

It took a long time to start and synchronize the Wallet. It appears that almost 8gb of files were created in the appdate/roaming/bitcoin folder.

As this is a considerable portion of my SSD:
- Are these files forever needed or can I remove them?
- Will these grow with all new transactions? If so, then they might grow into dozens of gb?
- Can these files be moved if they can not be deleted, without haviong to re-synch?

Thanks!

That's the blockchain and there's not much point having it on an SSD, the whole folder on a conventional drive and linked to the current location would be ok.

Thanks guys.
It's all downloaded and synched now, so might as well use the data and have plenty of space elsewhere.
I use the windows client and there is no (?) option to set the data directory, I can also not find any .conf file in the program folder. Is there a way to point the client to a new data directory?

Thanks!

[eggie]

It took a long time to start and synchronize the Wallet. It appears that almost 8gb of files were created in the appdate/roaming/bitcoin folder.

As this is a considerable portion of my SSD:
- Are these files forever needed or can I remove them?
- Will these grow with all new transactions? If so, then they might grow into dozens of gb?
- Can these files be moved if they can not be deleted, without haviong to re-synch?

Thanks!

That's the blockchain and there's not much point having it on an SSD, the whole folder on a conventional drive and linked to the current location would be ok.

Thanks guys.
It's all downloaded and synched now, so might as well use the data and have plenty of space elsewhere.
I use the windows client and there is no (?) option to set the data directory, I can also not find any .conf file in the program folder. Is there a way to point the client to a new data directory?

Thanks!

I don't use windows myself but i'd say creating a shortcut to the .exe file that starts bitcoin-qt on windows with the argument -datadir "d:\locationofdatadir" would be easies.

Info on passing arguments in shortcuts:
http://superuser.com/questions/29569/how-to-add-command-line-options-to-shortcut

[mitty]

That's the blockchain and there's not much point having it on an SSD, the whole folder on a conventional drive and linked to the current location would be ok.

Keeping the blockchain on an SSD is nice if you can spare the space... it makes starting the client much faster than when you keep the blockchain on a regular hard drive.

[Neverest]

It took a long time to start and synchronize the Wallet. It appears that almost 8gb of files were created in the appdate/roaming/bitcoin folder.

As this is a considerable portion of my SSD:
- Are these files forever needed or can I remove them?
- Will these grow with all new transactions? If so, then they might grow into dozens of gb?
- Can these files be moved if they can not be deleted, without haviong to re-synch?

Thanks!

That's the blockchain and there's not much point having it on an SSD, the whole folder on a conventional drive and linked to the current location would be ok.

Thanks guys.
It's all downloaded and synched now, so might as well use the data and have plenty of space elsewhere.
I use the windows client and there is no (?) option to set the data directory, I can also not find any .conf file in the program folder. Is there a way to point the client to a new data directory?

Thanks!

I don't use windows myself but i'd say creating a shortcut to the .exe file that starts bitcoin-qt on windows with the argument -datadir "d:\locationofdatadir" would be easies.

Info on passing arguments in shortcuts:
http://superuser.com/questions/29569/how-to-add-command-line-options-to-shortcut

Thanks, that is very useful anyway.
I just downloaded the Multibit wallet instead, which seems to work without downloading all blocks. Transfer from the Old wallet to the Multibit wallet is instant, so I assume I can transfer all and close/delete/purge the old wallet and all blocks?

[eggie]

It took a long time to start and synchronize the Wallet. It appears that almost 8gb of files were created in the appdate/roaming/bitcoin folder.

As this is a considerable portion of my SSD:
- Are these files forever needed or can I remove them?
- Will these grow with all new transactions? If so, then they might grow into dozens of gb?
- Can these files be moved if they can not be deleted, without haviong to re-synch?

Thanks!

That's the blockchain and there's not much point having it on an SSD, the whole folder on a conventional drive and linked to the current location would be ok.

Thanks guys.
It's all downloaded and synched now, so might as well use the data and have plenty of space elsewhere.
I use the windows client and there is no (?) option to set the data directory, I can also not find any .conf file in the program folder. Is there a way to point the client to a new data directory?

Thanks!

I don't use windows myself but i'd say creating a shortcut to the .exe file that starts bitcoin-qt on windows with the argument -datadir "d:\locationofdatadir" would be easies.

Info on passing arguments in shortcuts:
http://superuser.com/questions/29569/how-to-add-command-line-options-to-shortcut

Thanks, that is very useful anyway.
I just downloaded the Multibit wallet instead, which seems to work without downloading all blocks. Transfer from the Old wallet to the Multibit wallet is instant, so I assume I can transfer all and close/delete/purge the old wallet and all blocks?

That assumption is correct. Wait for at least a few confirmations though. It's unlikely that you'll double-spend it yourself, but you can never be too sure

[nebulus]

It took a long time to start and synchronize the Wallet. It appears that almost 8gb of files were created in the appdate/roaming/bitcoin folder.

As this is a considerable portion of my SSD:
- Are these files forever needed or can I remove them?
- Will these grow with all new transactions? If so, then they might grow into dozens of gb?
- Can these files be moved if they can not be deleted, without haviong to re-synch?

Thanks!

1. You need them
2. Yes
3. Yes