Mac OS question: can you run Bitcoin on a bootable USB stick?

[NoobBitcoinUzr]

I have a MacBook running OS 10.6.8 and I think this sounds to me like the only really secure solution.

First, is this do-able (I'm guessing creating the bootable USB drive itself is - I understand that a USB drive that's around 16-32GB minimum would probably suffice), and second, does this sound viable (or necessary) for the purposes of running an optimally secure Bitcoin client/wallet setup (short of buying a cheap netbook, strictly limiting it's online time, and otherwise encrypting it and firewalling the hell out of it)?

As a perhaps easier alternative, I was thinking there might be a way to store just the wallet.dat file (and other necessary files like the blockchain, database files, whatever, not the program itself) on a non-bootable USB drive so that Bitcoin Qt could only run properly when the USB drive is mounted. Is that possible or adviseable? How?

Thanks again

[DannyHamilton]

If you install Mac OS on the external removable bootable USB, then there is no reason that you can't boot up with that and install Bitcoin-Qt on it.  It should run just fine.

Since you will likely only be booting up from this removable drive occasionally when you want to access/send your bitcoin, the biggest problem you will probably have is that your copy of the blockchain won't be updating.  This means every time you boot up from the removable drive to access the bitcoin you will be stuck waiting (hours? days?) for the blockchain to update.

As for your second idea (storing your wallet.dat and other files on a non-bootable USB drive, the last I recall bitcoin is coded to look for those files in a particular directory.  You can't tell it to access those files from somewhere else.  However, you should be able to create symbolic links between the directory where Bitcoin-Qt looks for the files and the directory on the removable USB where you will actually store the files.

[NoobBitcoinUzr]

you should be able to create symbolic links between the directory where Bitcoin-Qt looks for the files and the directory on the removable USB where you will actually store the files.

This sounds like a relatively painless method for achieving cold storage.... can anyone point me towards how I can do this on Mac OS 10.6.8???

Once can can get this done, I will then look into wallet backups on wuala, and then I think I'll have a good system going.

Thank you!

[NoobBitcoinUzr]

you should be able to create symbolic links between the directory where Bitcoin-Qt looks for the files and the directory on the removable USB where you will actually store the files.

This sounds like a relatively painless method for achieving cold storage.... can anyone point me towards how I can do this on Mac OS 10.6.8???

Once can can get this done, I will then look into wallet backups on wuala, and then I think I'll have a good system going.

Thank you!

http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2001110610290643

Never mind, Google is my friend. Thanks a bunch!

[SAC]

you should be able to create symbolic links between the directory where Bitcoin-Qt looks for the files and the directory on the removable USB where you will actually store the files.

This sounds like a relatively painless method for achieving cold storage.... can anyone point me towards how I can do this on Mac OS 10.6.8???

Once can can get this done, I will then look into wallet backups on wuala, and then I think I'll have a good system going.

Thank you!

ln -s /Users/username/Library/Application\ Support/Bitcoin /Volumes/usb_drive_name/Bitcoin in terminal or you could just use the --datadir=/Volumes/usb_drive_name/Bitcoin when starting the bitcoin to forgo the symbolic link all together. You would do this in a terminal window like so /Applications/Bitcoin-Qt.app/Contents/MacOS/Bitcoin-Qt --datadir=/Volumes/usb_drive_name/Bitcoin.

[World]

try MultiBit
http://multibit.org/help_runFromUSBDrive.html

[NoobBitcoinUzr]

try MultiBit
http://multibit.org/help_runFromUSBDrive.html

Very cool. I like Multibit a lot (very nice interface, obviously designed with Mac users in mind). Seems to me this is NOT referring to creating bootable USB drives - just a way of storing wallet files offline and not on a computer you regularly use?

I think this could work.