NEWBIE TO BITCOIN ... URGENT AND VERY IMPORTANT - I NEED IMMEDIATE HELP!

[deisraeli]

Greetings BTC Forum Members,

Here is my issue:

Intro:

On 01/19/2014 @ 3:30pm, after two weeks of reading, note-taking, and pondering about Bitcoin for Individuals, I ran Bitcoin-QT full-node package on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 under the assumption of having a wallet to only send and another wallet to only receive and under the assumption as Soshi put it just as one in the real world would not put all his or her eggs in one basket neither should we do this in the virtual world [paraphrasing]  . However, prior to running Bitcoin-QT on Windows 7 and Window 8.1 I performed the following steps:

Step 1 - backed-up both c:drives and re-installed Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 as new installations keeping nothing.

Step 2 - after installing updates for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, I ran download Bitcoin-Qt on both systems for synchronization completion under two pseudonyms because I thought we could play the game like that since Soshi has even though there is no true privacy . I guess you can say I was thinking like a bank - One pseudonym to receive funds, One pseudonym to send funds, and multiple cold storages to store the receive and send transactions  . Moreover, my plans were to allow Bitcoin-QT to continue synchronizing on Windows 7 as a 24/7 no holidays off machine.

Step 3 - on 01/20/2014 at about 7:30pm, Windows 8.1 successfully synchronized Bitcoin-QT as indicated by the "green check mark". Therefore, I shut Windows 8.1 down to let Windows 7 finish its synchronizing of Bitcoin-QT. It was about this time I noticed Bitcoin-Qt on Windows 7 was  synchronizing 3 hours behind.

Step 4 - on 01/21/2014 at about 12:00am, checked to see the synchronization progress of Bitcoin-QT on Windows 7 to learn that synchronization was still 3 hours behind.

Step 5 - on 01/21/2014 at about 7:00am, Bitcoin-Qt was still synchronizing 3 hours behind.

Step 6 - on 01/21/2014 at about 7:15am, I ran Bitcoin-QT from Windows 8.1 assuming that I had perhaps interrupted the synchronization progress of Bitcoin-Qt on Windows 7 as a result of disconnecting Bitcoin-Qt from Windows 8.1 because Windows 8.1 had successfully synchronized. However, as Bitcoin-QT began to verify on Windows 8.1, I received a pop-up error stating "Cannot obtain a data directory ... Bitcoin is already running".

Step 7 - on 01/21/2014 at about 7:20am, I disconnected Bitcoin-QT from Windows 8.1 and re-connected it and received the same error message of "Cannot obtain data directory...". I continued to disconnect and reconnect Bitcoin-QT from Windows 8.1 and learned that sometimes the same error message would pop-up and sometimes it would not.

Step 8 - on 01/21/2014 at about 8:00am, I disconnected Bitcoin-Qt from Windows 7 and shut the system down to conserve energy and time.

Step 9 - on 01/21/2014 at about 9:00am, I reconnected Bitcoin-QT in Windows 7 as well as continuing to run Bitcoin-QT on Windows 8.1. On Windows 7, Bitcoin-QT was 4 hours behind and sometime after that it was 2 hours behind, then began to be 3 hours behind where it has remained as of this email.

Step 10 - on 01/21/2014 at about 9:15am, I disconnected Bitcoin-QT from Windows 8 and continued to allow it to Synchronize on Windows 7. At 10:30am, synchronizing of Bitcoin-QT on Windows 7 was still running 3 hours behind. At 11:00am, disconnected Bitcoin-QT from Windows 7 and shut the computer down. At 11:30am, synchronized and verified Bitcoin-QT on Windows 8.1 and as of this email I have not received the error message "Cannot obtain data directory ...".

Step 11 - on 01/21/2014 at about 10:00am, I scoured the internet for answers pertaining to my situation including this forum to no avail. However, I did at http://bitcoingeneration.org/SatoshiPosts.html, find post #25 "Is safe running bitcoins with the same wallet on more computers simultaneously?" but to me it seems that Ales Janda was using one name or one "wallet" on multiple devices.

Questions:

Question1 - Forum, is there a difference between a peer using one (1) wallet on multiple devices as compared to a peer synchronizing two different wallets, under two pseudonyms even though privacy does not matter because the addresses like to the same person when discovered in the Blockchain, on two different operating systems using the same IP address for synchronizing?

Question2 - Since Bitcoin-QT has successfully synchronized according to the green check mark on Windows 8.1 and is continuing to synchronize 3 hours behind after 3 days on Windows 7, should I remove Bitcoin-QT from Windows 7? Bummer! because that is a dedicated desktop, unlike this laptop which travels and therefore gets shut down frequently. If so, what is the best procedure for removing Bitcoin-QT? Run a fresh Operating System (OS) install? Or merely remove it from the User's Control Panel on the OS system?

Question3 - Since nothing is Anonymous in this game, I am assuming that if a person had to do a bank transfer to hold funds in an "Exchange Account" in order to purchase 1BTC to begin the game or receive a fraction of it if someone will donate to you so that you can begin, then what good is it for a person to use a pseudonym, like Soshi, if the key receive is tainted once it hits the market and the banks know it had to be you because it comes from your account that they would have to transfer to your Bitcoin account, thus you are known to be a Bitcoin participant?

[NOTE: I have not done nothing more with Bitcoin-QT other than preview its features to compare with what I have been reading about in regard to backing up, encrypting, and cold-storage of wallets and privacy good practices. This is my experimental stage and as I am not a techie, should Bitcoin-QT be synchronized online from one computer?]

Step 12 - Turning to you as a newbie for a possible solution. I tried to Bcc this to Soshi as well to no avail as you can see.

[NOTE: I do not want to take any further steps to continue as usual and wait until Bitcoin-QT has fully synchronized on Windows 7, remove one copy Bitcoin-QT from either Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 or both, nor begin to start the backup and encryption on Windows 8.1 since it allegedly synchronized successfully by indication of the "green check mark" on the lower right-hand corner of Bitcoin-QT. ]


Sincerely,



De'Israeli

PS. I have a snippet concerning the Windows 8.1 green check mark and a snippet showing that as of 01/21/2014 at 11:00am Bitcoin-QT on Windows 7 was still synchronizing 3 hours behind after since 01/20/2014 at about 7:00pm. However, I cannot find the upload file button to submit with those images.

[Barek]

First off, I skimmed.

You may want to look at Bitcoin Armory (https://bitcoinarmory.com/). It interfaces with bitcoin-qt and adds some advanced features, watching only wallets among them.

You mention data directory often. You can use the commandline parameter "-datadir=<path to dir>" to tell bitcoin-qt to use the non-standard path.

[Meuh6879]

You can't run Bitcoin-QT from a "official" link (on the desktop, for example) ... when you don't use the same system or directory.
You must create a "commun" shortcut for all win8 and win7 to indicate a path for the blockcahin folder.

I do this.

I have the blockchain folder in a drive, and the bitcoin folder in a other.
the 2 folders is NOT on the system partition.

[deisraeli]

Greetings Barek and Forum,

My apologies for having such a lengthy post. And thank you for your quick response. Because I am very new, despite over two-weeks of in-depth reading of the Original paper, videos on YouTube, and information listed at http://bitcoin.org/en/ for individuals, I thought it to be best if I started from the beginning of my task in detail to successfully synchronize two Bitcoin-QT wallets on two systems from on IP Address.   

HERE IS A SHORT VERSION:

I Had Bitcoin-QT synchronizing from a Windows 7 OS platform and a Windows 8.1 OS platform at the same time on 01/19/2014 from the same IP Address because I wanted to create two wallets.

Bitcoin-QT, on 01/20/2014, synchronized successfully on Windows 8.1 as indicated by the "green check mark". As this reply post, Bitcoin-QT on Windows 7 is still synchronizing 3 hours behind.

Once I learned that Bitcoin-QT on Windows 8.1 was synchronized, I closed the software and shut the computer down to allow Bitcon-QT on Windows 7 to complete its synchronization. It's 3 days later and Bitcoin_QT on Windows 7 is still synchronizing 3 hours behind. 

Also, after three days of synchronizing of Bitcoin-QT on Windows 7 and its still 3 hours behind, I thought it might be best to re-start Bitcoin-QT from Windows 8.1, which resulted in the "Cannot obtain data directory ... " error message on Windows 8.1. Once I stopped the synchronization process of Bitcoin-QT on Windows 7, that error message has not re-popped-up on Windows 8.1 as of yet.

Therefore, since only one wallet is actually required for this game, I was seeking help as to what I should do in regard to:

1. Keeping Bitcoin-QT on Windows 8.1 and allow Bitcoin on Windows 7 to stay running until it finally catches up even though the rainbow is not turning?

2. Deleting Bitcoin-QT from Windows 7 because it has been three days and it's still synchronizing at 3 hours behind? Despite this system being the system that runs 24/7.

3. Deleting Bitcoin-QT from both Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 and start over again using only wallet on one system? Since I am merely experimenting and have not done anything with the address received on Windows 8.1 nothing gained nothing loss, remember Windows 7 is still synchronizing at 3 hours behind therefore no address for it has been generated.

SIDE NBTCTE: I have pondered about using (https://bitcoinarmory.com/) with Bitcoin-QT but that is not my problem and moreover Soshi keeps telling us Trust NBTC 1 even sites like  Armory and Bitcoin itself.

THIS GAME IS KIND OF CONFUSING BECAUSE ON ONE END ALL WE NEED IS ONE WALLET BACKED-UP AND ENCRYPTED in MANY FORMATS POSSIBLE, PAPER BEING THE MOST SAFEST AND ATTEMPT TO EXCHANGE WITHOUT ANY "CHANGE" RETURNING BACK TO YOU BECAUSE ONCE YOUR "CHANGE" GOES BACK INTO THE OUTPUT OF BLOCK IT'S UP FOR GRABBING BY MINERS WITH THE OUTPUT THAT HAS YET TO BE VERIFIED BY HE RECEIVER. ON THE OTHER END, WHO DO YOU TRUST?

[deisraeli]

Greetings Meuh6879 and Forum,

Thanks for your response!

Both Barek and you have enlightened me highly on procedures to help attempt to resolve my issue. However, because I am both a novice and newbie to Bitcoin have no idea how I would code you two suggestions. I am like a baby who needs help taking his or her first step.

And thus far, what I am learning is that - It is okay to have Bitcoin-QT synchronizing from two computers creating two different wallets using the same IP Address.

Wherefore, because I do not know how to code as Barek and you, my question becomes is okay for me to just keep Bitcoin-QT on Windowns 8.1 even though it does not run 24/7 like my desktop and delete it from Windows 7? Or is this game once you have received a "receive" address that you have not used you cannot compete in the mining game any longer?

Or can I delete Bitcoin-QT from both systems and start all over again since the wallets are empty?

[grue]

please change the topic title because it's not descriptive at all.

[deisraeli]

Hi grue,

In my opinion, my topic is very descriptive for what I am trying to resolve.

first off, I am a newbie to bitcoin. Secondly, maybe not to you, my issue is urgent and very important. and last, I need immediate help because I have Bitcoin-QT synchronizing on my Windows 7 at 3 hours behind and its been three days. However, as I stated previously, I have a wallet on my Windows 8.1 system and I am not certain that the error message of "Cannot obtain data directory..." on my Windows 8.1 is the result of Bitcoin-QT still synchronizing at 3 hours behind on my Windows 7 since the last 3 days.


Because I have Windows 8.1 successfully synchronized as indicated by the green check mark, I want to delete Bitcoin-QT from my Windows 7, even though it can run from my desktop 24/7 if it would just finish synchronizing.

Sorry this could not be of any service to you OR you any service to me about this issue!