bitcoin-qt 0.8.5-win32 Problem

[DavidTheDog]

I run this quite frequently to keep up to date.

Recently it has been giving a message saying "System error. database corrupted"

What to do, please ?

[rarkenin]

First of all, use a newer version such as 0.9.2.1 as it addresses security issues, some of which are severe. If you still have corruption issues, back up your wallet.dat from your data directory, clear your data directory (%APPDATA%/Bitcoin or %APPDATA/Roaming/Bitcoin), and then restore wallet.dat

[DavidTheDog]

OK Thanks for this.

First I downloaded 0.9.2.1. When I ran it I got a message saying "fatal error occurred.13leveldb.Database corrupted...etc"

I am now preparing to follow your further advice.

In \App Data\Bitcoin I have Wallet and Peers for which I have copies from before the failure.

\..\Bitcoin has further sub folders called \chainstate and \database.

Before running 0.9.2.1, which exact folders should I delete please ?

[rarkenin]

The entire Bitcoin folder after backing up wallet.dat from inside it, to somewhere secure such as a flash drive that you later plan to erase.

[shorena]

The entire Bitcoin folder after backing up wallet.dat from inside it, to somewhere secure such as a flash drive that you later plan to erase.

Why do you advise OP to redownload the whole blockchain? If you think the blockchain data is a problem (which makes sense since the error clearly states: database error) -reindex can fix that without redownloading ~20 Gigs of data.

[rarkenin]

Why do you advise OP to redownload the whole blockchain? If you think the blockchain data is a problem (which makes sense since the error clearly states: database error) -reindex can fix that without redownloading ~20 Gigs of data.

I've personally had two corruption experiences not helped by -reindex. Feel free to suggest what works for you.

[DavidTheDog]

The suggested solution is working OK but I am surprised by the slowness. When I first started with Bitcoin in 2013 it took me approx a day and a half to get the block data. With 0.9.2.1 after two days I have only managed to go from 5 years 27 weeks behind to 1 year 50 weeks. The process has stopped six times because the system threw an exception and it just stopped by itself a further three times. OK, I exited and re-started but it is much slower than in 2013. The download speed is the same as it was in 2013 - a pretty measly 1 Mbps - but as it's unchanged it can't account for this extreme tardiness.

Would anyone like to comment ?