Running a node on Raspberry Pi

[Rarobro]

I have the full bitcoin core wallet running on my imac on to an external hard drive, can I run that hard drive thru a raspberry Pi or is it better just to start again and down load the bitcoin core wallet thru the raspberry pi to run the node

[Sophokles]

Reloading the blockchain from the web with the raspi will take weeks. It is possible to reuse the external hdd if it has a compatible file system (e.g. NTFS). Otherwise it is possible to import the blockchain to the raspi pi form the local hdd:

https://github.com/Stadicus/guides/blob/master/raspibolt/raspibolt_50_mainnet.md

[bob123]

To quickly answer your question: Yes, you can simply connect that hard drive to your Pi without needing to download it from scratch.

There shouldn't be any problems just plugging out/in the hard drive.

But you should keep in mind that external hard drives are way more error-prone to file corruption than internal drives, since core does need a continious connection to your hard drive (which may fail from time to time with external drives).

[Jet Cash]

You will need the supporting files such as your wallet on the hard drive as well as the blockchain. I'd use an SSD rather than an HDD. I use an external SSD drive with Ubuntu, and sync'ing takes less than half the time that sync'ing takes with an internal HDD under Windows. Core seems to be pretty robust as well. Windows has had quite a few attempts to screw it up, but if you close the program and allow it to restart normally, it seems to be able to sort out the problems for itself.

[Rarobro]

Thank you everyone for your help thanks Sophokles for the link I will give it a go as I want to run the node full time as I believe in Bitcoin, Cheers

[Jet Cash]

Don't forget that you will still be supporting Bitcoin if you run a pruned node, and this could allow you to use a smaller hard drive.

[Sophokles]

Thank you everyone for your help thanks Sophokles for the link I will give it a go as I want to run the node full time as I believe in Bitcoin, Cheers

Sure, happy to help . Report back if you run into problems. And teach other people once you have it working.

[jackg]

https://www.modmypi.com/blog/boost-usb-current - this might be helpful depending on how much you have used your Pi already (if you've already used a hard drive with it then you're good, however, if not, you need to change the config file to state max_usb_current=1)

[Rarobro]

Hi everyone once again thanks for all your help, well had quite a few problems with the pi and the external hd and the old node on that hd but we got there in the end, to cut a long story short the bitcoin core wallet is running and sync with 8 active connections  to the network and got 4 years of downloading but thats ok as thats all the pi going to do is run the node.

 

[Jet Cash]

A couple of speed issues I've noticed on the netbook. Using a USB3 port to sync takes half the time of a USB2. Using an SSD on a USB3 port takes half the time of an HDD. All timings are subjective and approximate.

[Rarobro]

Hi everyone and thanks for your help, the pi is nearly done downloading only 8 days behind with the blocks taking awhile but I didn't care I'm happy its caught up and it works and i'm doing my bit helping out cheers everyone