Hi,
You need to backup the wallet.dat-file that's sufficient.
Its not that dangerous to export the private key, as long as you don't expose it
You need to install electrum and chose "restore wallet", paste your private key in the text area (I'm on my mobile, so I'm doing this from memory, the wording might be different)
Hi... right I think I just read this right and the previous post. to sum up (obviously nervous about doing this)
1. Backup the wallet.bat through the file\backup wallet menu (it is ok to do this whilst it is still trying to synchronise the network??)
Yes. The file contains the private keys. They allow you to recover if something should go wrong. You dont have to be in sync for this.
2. Use the command lines (as stated above) to extract the current private key associated with the wallet
3. close the current wallet program
4. Install Electrum (can i do this on a totally different PC??)
Yes, just make sure you transfer the private key in a secure way (e.g. not via Mail). In its unencrypted form it can be used to steal all your coins within seconds.
5. create a standard wallet and remember the seed
6. Go to wallet, select private key and I think "sweep" is the best option and input my key (i think sweep is best, if i want to totally replace the current wallet with electrum??)
Yes, sweep will make sure that all funds you previously had on bitcoin core (or rather spendable with the private key in question, keep the wallet.dat from core anyway just in case) are now transfered to the electrum wallet. This will be done on the blockchain and will cost a small amount of fees.
7. The bit coins that i transferred (3 days ago, and not visible in bit core because the network hasnt finished synchronising) will be there in Electrum for me to use...?)
does this sound correct, thank you all so much for your help
Electrum does not need the entire blockchain itself. It connects to servers that already have the chain. These servers can tell your client all it needs to know without them knowing your private keys. Make sure you have a good (e.g. on paper) backup of the seed words. Forgetting the password is not a problem as long as you have the seed.
I believe ranochigo gave u the best solution if u need any other help just pm me
Be careful with PMs here as well. This is nothing against coaltin. Just take care.