Do I have to wait for hours to start using Bitcoin? [Bitcoin Core 0.9.0]

[ottom]

Hello,

on a new computer, Bitcoin Core 0.9.0 says that it synchronizes with the network for several hours now.
It also says that we are 100-something weeks behind. (Behind what?)
Does Bitcoin Core doewnloads the whole 14 GB blockchain to my hard drive?
Do I have to wait so long for synchronization to complete any time I move to a new computer?

[zvs]

Hello,

on a new computer, Bitcoin Core 0.9.0 says that it synchronizes with the network for several hours now.
It also says that we are 100-something weeks behind. (Behind what?)
Does Bitcoin Core doewnloads the whole 14 GB blockchain to my hard drive?
Do I have to wait so long for synchronization to complete any time I move to a new computer?

If it's still 100+ weeks behind after several hours, then it's going a lot slower than it should (unless you're on some 512MB VPS or something similar).  Download the torrent or use maxconnections=1 and connect to one peer with lots of bandwidth.

The blockchain is around 20GB, and, yes, it downloads the whole thing.

No, you could simply put your bitcoin files on a flash drive and take that to your new computer.

[gondel]

Hi,

It takes a lot of time to synchronize with the network. Even if you already have installed the wallet and you didnt open it for days it will take time for it to synchronise. My advise is to open your wallet often even if you dont use it for transaction.

BR,

Gondel

[DannyHamilton]

Hello,

on a new computer, Bitcoin Core 0.9.0 says that it synchronizes with the network for several hours now.
It also says that we are 100-something weeks behind. (Behind what?)

Behind the most recent block in the blockchain.

Does Bitcoin Core doewnloads the whole 14 GB blockchain to my hard drive?

It's bigger than 14 GB (nearly 20 GB), but yes, it downloads the entire thing and verifies every block and every transaction to make sure that they all follow the rules of the protocol.

Do I have to wait so long for synchronization to complete any time I move to a new computer?

No.

If you were running Bitcoin Core on an old computer, you could copy the APPDATA directory to the new computer.  Then the new computer would already have the blockchain.

You could also use a wallet that doesn't require the entire blockchain (such as MultiBit, Electrum, or blockchain.info).

[ottom]

Now I have found the folder:
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin\blocks

I would like to have it somewhere else.
Is there a preference in Bitcoin Core 0.9.0 for that? I not see anything related.

[Cryddit]

If you want the files in a different place, then move them to a different place and alter your launcher to call

"bitcoin-qt -datadir=location"

instead of just

"bitcoin-qt"

(where location is the directory where you put the files of course).

[bobdutica]

If you don't want to wait to download the whole blockchain, or if you don't want to tie up the 20Gb of disk space, try Electrum. It's a lightweight client with a lot of great features.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=518133.0