is it possible to store the blockchain in two different hard drives?

[fedemining]

is it possible to store the blockchain in two different hard drives that works simultaneousley?

[joniboini]

Blockchain is actually stored on many hard drives (replicated) and they 'work' simultaneously. The blockchain is simply a file/database, you can store and copy it many times.

If you're talking about running a node and then split your blockchain file to two different address, I doubt it's not possible because blockchain is stored in a single file, blk*.dat (in Bitcoin). If you split it (that single file) into two (not sure how you did this, I assume you'll split it and therefore break the data, just like a broken zip file) you won't be able to use it because it's corrupt. You can read further here[1].

That's what I understand at least, maybe someone smarter than me has a different opinion.
[1] http://learnmeabitcoin.com/glossary/blkdat

[LoyceV]

Depending on your Operating System, you may be able to softlink certain files (blocks) to another hard drive, but it's not recommended.
Are you trying to save space? In that case you might want to use prune.

[mocacinno]

yes... In a way, especially if you use linux. But probably not in the way you're thinking.

- create 1 partition on each disk, type LVM
- create a volume group including the two disks
- create a new logical volume, 2 stripes, mountpoint /home/youruser/.bitcoin

There's also the option of setting up a raid setup.

[jackg]

There's also the option of setting up a raid setup.

That's what I was thinking. I think this is raid1 maybe op should look into it as there's definitely software for that in all operating systems.

Unless op you want two copies of the exact same blockchain which is also possible and helpful in some cases..

[NeuroticFish]

OP, you've got here a number of good answers. However, if none of them helps you, maybe it could be a good idea to tell in more words what you want to find out, what is the exact thing you want to know or achieve.

From how I understand the question, I'd also say that something like RAID would be the answer for you. But on the other hand, HDDs are cheap nowadays so you should not really have such space issues to need the blockchain data kept on 2 HDDs. If you just want to keep all the current settings and just move the blockchain data onto a bigger HDD/partition, a symlink is the easy way forward.

[Jet Cash]

The blockchain doesn't matter, you can always download a new one. It's your wallet stuff that you need to worry about.

You can run two computers with a copy of the wallet on each, and synchronise the blockchains independently. This protects you if one computer is stolen, but you should make additional backups of your wallet so that you can recover your coins in the event of a disaster such as a fire.

[sheenshane]

Yes, and I think what you are trying to say is your wallet to be saved in two hard drives. Because of blockchain works simultaneously and just a database. To explain it more clear, blockchain is a database that will link a block into another block. Those blocks would have saved data such as hash, transaction information and so on.
If you are pertaining to saving your blockchain wallet into two hard drives, then that is actually yes. You can save your wallet in both of your two hard drives so if you lose the one, you'll still have an extra driver to have your wallet.

[Artemis3]

is it possible to store the blockchain in two different hard drives that works simultaneousley?

Raid controllers or "software (fake) Raid" can achieve this, with a mode called JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks), it will look to the OS like a single drive.

I would recommend Linux, but it might be possible to do it in windows if the motherboard has such mode. Although Raid 0 works, that needs two drives of identical size (or one of them would have wasted space). Raid 0 increases the chance of data loss if a problem occur with the drives, but the blockchain can easily be recovered anyway and it happens to be faster.

In Linux, you could use LVM as mentioned above.
There are also specialized filesystems that support this as well without LVM: Btrfs, and ZFS to name a couple.

If your drives are so small that you need two to fit the entire blockchain, perhaps you should consider simply getting a larger one. A cheap ($18) 250g drive should fit the blockchain now, but give it some room for the future: you can get a 500g drive for $20...

[jackg]

Or just use pruned mode if you don't need past transaction/blocks information. Besides HDD with small capacity have lower price/space ratio, you can get 4TB HDD for $100 which have price $0.025/GB while the one you mentioned have price $0.04/GB.

Along with this, if moneys tight, you can buy a second hand hard drive from a trusted and experienced broker generally they'll still be cheaper but you'll have to run a few things first just to check the drive is a big as the broker claims it to be...


Although op doesn't seem to have been here in a while so this might be a void comment.

[Artemis3]

There are also specialized filesystems that support this as well without LVM: Btrfs, and ZFS to name a couple.

btrfs is still on-development and AFAIK features such as RAID / multi-drive isn't fully stable yet.

Actually i have been using it for more than 3 years with zero issues using on the fly compression. Btrfs was officially declared stable when it was taken out of the experimental phase in the kernel by 2012, when several Linux distributions moved Btrfs from experimental to production or supported status.

The only features "still on development" would be raid 5/6 modes, raid 0/1 and jbod are perfectly fine.

With btrfs you can mix and match different devices and use them like a single device: https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Using_Btrfs_with_Multiple_Devices

There are several guides on btrfs out there, most distros have recent enough kernels to safely use it already.