Storing just a wallet on a USB drive

[jim618]

With the latest 0.5.9rc1 code there are a couple of features that make it simpler to store a wallet on a USB drive.
These are:
+ When you open a wallet it automatically resyncs from the last block it saw.
+ You can close a wallet and it disappears from MultiBit (It still stays the same on disk/ USB drive - you aren't deleting it).


To store a wallet on a USB drive you can do the following:

1) Plug in your USB drive.
2) Use 'File | New Wallet' to create a new wallet on your USB drive in whichever directory you like.
3) Add a password to the wallet using 'File | Add Password'.
4) Label the wallet and/or add some receiving addresses as you wish.
5) Transfer bitcoin onto the wallet from another one of your wallets.
6) I always wait for the first confirmation before closing a wallet. (You don't have to do this but then you know for sure it confirmed ok).
7) Close the wallet using 'File | Close Wallet'.

You can then eject the USB drive and put it somewhere safe.

When you want to spend your bitcoin in your USB wallet:
1) Plug in your USB drive.
2) Open the wallet on the drive using 'File | Open Wallet'.
3) MultiBit will then resync the wallet - this will take a minute or two (longer if you haven't used it for a while).
4) Spend your bitcoin as you like.
5) When you are finished, close the wallet in MultiBit using 'File | Close Wallet'.

Again, eject the USB drive.


For safety's sake, keep a copy of your wallet - perhaps on another USB drive. Copy the '.wallet', ".info" and '.key' files.

I have not tried it yet but because the wallet resyncs when you open it, you could use the wallet on the USB drive in a copy of MultiBit 0.5.9rc1 running on a different machine (or even a different operating system).


Safety Note:
Do not forget your password. There is no 'password reset'.
Make sure your wallet is backed up in case you lose your USB drive.

[rodri91]

My USB stick isn't listed when I go to open a wallet, help?