Uninstalling BitcoinCore; getting too big for my laptop. Can I delete blocks?

[opalbeetle]

I'm SORRY to post this because I'm sure the answer is already here somewhere, but I can't find a definitive answer so I had to post anew.

The blockchain is far too big for my poor little laptop now and I have uninstalled it. In the past, I tried to move it to my external harddrive but something went wrong. I am not technically minded and so I ended up reinstalling on the C drive, and thank god it worked and started to rebuild the blockchain. However we don't even have superfast internet in my house and I have never been able to get my wallet up to date. I need to use my laptop for uni work and it is so slow now.

Can I delete all the blocks, because they take up so much room? Am I right in thinking that if I eventually get a new laptop I could reinstall Core, or a different program, move my wallet.dat file over and it will download the blockchain again - even if it takes a long time?

Sorry to ask questions that have been asked before - I am seriously grateful for everyone's help!
In plain english please!!! 

opalbeetle

[shorena]

I'm SORRY to post this because I'm sure the answer is already here somewhere, but I can't find a definitive answer so I had to post anew.

The blockchain is far too big for my poor little laptop now and I have uninstalled it. In the past, I tried to move it to my external harddrive but something went wrong. I am not technically minded and so I ended up reinstalling on the C drive, and thank god it worked and started to rebuild the blockchain. However we don't even have superfast internet in my house and I have never been able to get my wallet up to date. I need to use my laptop for uni work and it is so slow now.

Have you considered running it in pruned mode?

Can I delete all the blocks, because they take up so much room?

Yes, but you will no longer be able to use it as a wallet if you just delete the files. Also before you delete anything, make sure you have a backup of your wallet.dat

Am I right in thinking that if I eventually get a new laptop I could reinstall Core, or a different program, move my wallet.dat file over and it will download the blockchain again - even if it takes a long time?

Yes, that should not be a problem.

Sorry to ask questions that have been asked before - I am seriously grateful for everyone's help!
In plain english please!!! 

opalbeetle

Hope it was plain enough. If not, feel free to ask more.

[opalbeetle]

Hi Shorena,

Thanks for your response!

Firstly, I'm afraid I don't know what pruned mode is and I doubt I would know how to run it.
At the moment my priority is to remove Bitcoin and hopefully all the data from my laptop. I don't need to use it as a wallet for the time being. I am not using any Bitcoins right now, so I dont need access to them.

But I do have some and so in the future I hope to buy a larger faster pc or laptop, reinstall Core or perhaps find a different program... and thus recover my Bitcoins. My understanding was that all I really need to keep is that wallet.dat file - because I can always download the blockchain again.

Am I right to think this? Or are there other files I need to keep?

Many thanks

opalbeetle

[unholycactus]

Hi Shorena,

Thanks for your response!

Firstly, I'm afraid I don't know what pruned mode is and I doubt I would know how to run it.
At the moment my priority is to remove Bitcoin and hopefully all the data from my laptop. I don't need to use it as a wallet for the time being. I am not using any Bitcoins right now, so I dont need access to them.

But I do have some and so in the future I hope to buy a larger faster pc or laptop, reinstall Core or perhaps find a different program... and thus recover my Bitcoins. My understanding was that all I really need to keep is that wallet.dat file - because I can always download the blockchain again.

Am I right to think this? Or are there other files I need to keep?

Many thanks

opalbeetle

You should already have a backup of your wallet.dat file in case something goes wrong.
But yes, this is the only file you need. You could also run a light wallet and import the private keys (inside the wallet.dat).

[opalbeetle]

Much appreciated, unholycactus!! 

[Anna1997]

I deleted this and everythink work.

[Dabs]

What kind of laptop are you using? What are the specs? Particularly HDD or SSD size? (might as well tell us the RAM and CPU or processor.)

[steven0021]

Firstly, I'm afraid I don't know what pruned mode is and I doubt I would know how to run it.
At the moment my priority is to remove Bitcoin and hopefully all the data from my laptop. I don't need to use it as a wallet for the time being. I am not using any Bitcoins right now, so I dont need access to them.

But I do have some and so in the future I hope to buy a larger faster pc or laptop, reinstall Core or perhaps find a different program... and thus recover my Bitcoins. My understanding was that all I really need to keep is that wallet.dat file - because I can always download the blockchain again.

Have you deleted them yet? If not then:
Making core run in pruned mode is very easy and it'll save you the trouble of re-downloading in the future. Just rune core with -prune=550. 550 is the disk space in megabyte (can be increased, can't be lower than 550) that bitcoin core will use for raw block and undo data.

Wallet.dat is the only thing you need to backup if you're going to delete bitcoin core.

[Hanslo]

Firstly, I'm afraid I don't know what pruned mode is and I doubt I would know how to run it.
At the moment my priority is to remove Bitcoin and hopefully all the data from my laptop. I don't need to use it as a wallet for the time being. I am not using any Bitcoins right now, so I dont need access to them.

But I do have some and so in the future I hope to buy a larger faster pc or laptop, reinstall Core or perhaps find a different program... and thus recover my Bitcoins. My understanding was that all I really need to keep is that wallet.dat file - because I can always download the blockchain again.

Have you deleted them yet? If not then:
Making core run in pruned mode is very easy and it'll save you the trouble of re-downloading in the future. Just rune core with -prune=550. 550 is the disk space in megabyte (can be increased, can't be lower than 550) that bitcoin core will use for raw block and undo data.

Wallet.dat is the only thing you need to backup if you're going to delete bitcoin core.

He says: "Firstly, I'm afraid I don't know what pruned mode is and I doubt I would know how to run it."

[BTC_Universe]

You can't cut blocks off and still have your wallet work until the whole blockchain decides they want to. Satoshi detailed about a way to cut blocks off without in-validating the blocks after them, but doing this would require most people to do it.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but this is my understanding.

[shorena]

You can't cut blocks off and still have your wallet work until the whole blockchain decides they want to. Satoshi detailed about a way to cut blocks off without in-validating the blocks after them, but doing this would require most people to do it.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but this is my understanding.

You are wrong, its possible to discard most of the block after they have been verified.[1]

[1] https://bitcoin.org/en/release/v0.12.0#wallet-pruning

[ranochigo]

You can't cut blocks off and still have your wallet work until the whole blockchain decides they want to. Satoshi detailed about a way to cut blocks off without in-validating the blocks after them, but doing this would require most people to do it.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but this is my understanding.

The newer Bitcoin Core version has a pruning mode available for users to use. Bitcoin Core only requires the blocks to validate and store information about the transactions. After validating and storing the information about the transactions that has happened, Bitcoin Core can instead delete the blocks and store the information regarding the unspent output and the information of transaction of the addresses in the client. This would not allow the user to import a private key as they would be unable to scan the entire blockchain for transactions and get the information. The nodes can also only relay transactions and newer blocks to the peer.

Any user can use this feature.

#Hehe Shorena is faster again.