BitcoinQT wallet. Blockchain grows and hdd is getting smaller

[bitcalm]

hi
i use BitcoinQT wallet on a notebook with 500GB for 3 years now.

today i found out , i only have 33GB free space left.

so i still have a couple of days to upgrade my hdd to a bigger hdd.

What tool should i use to clone the small 500gb hdd to a bigger hdd its a linux system. (freeware/open source)

"just to be save. i saved the Privatkeys with dumpprivkey command in BitcoinQT Console"

thanks in advance

[BitMaxz]

Last time I used Clonezilla before to backup or clone a disk it includes on my USB Hiren's tool for repairing Laptop/PC.

If you want to use that tool you need to make a bootable USB with Hiren's and I think Hiren's have lots of cloning tool that I think you can use to backup your disk.
Source: https://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

Why not switch to SSD instead with big space you can just use "SSD/HDD to USB" or use the enclosure to move the blockchain files and wallet file from your HDD.

[NotATether]

You also have to expand the filesystem after you clone the partition to another disk.

What filesystem is on the disk? If it's ext2/3/4 then expanding those filesystems is a little complicated. It involves using fdisk to delete the partition and create a newer one the that spans all the sectors of the new disk. It doesn't write any changes until you exit the program but there's a risk of data loss if it's done incorrectly.

If it's running XFS then it has a utility that can expand it on-the-fly without deleting the partition. Same with LVM but that one is a container for other filesystems so you'll also have to resize the filesystem that's contained inside it. I am not sure about other filesystems like zfs or btrfs though.

I recommend using CloneZilla which @BitMaxz mentioned, because it provides an easy user interface that walks you through the whole process (and there are tutorials online for how to use it such as https://www.fosslinux.com/28452/how-to-clone-hard-disk-using-clonezilla.htm). But if for some reason you cannot make a bootable disk then dd is always available but only use it if you are skilled with dd. People have lost partitions and data from typing the wrong dd command.

[bitcalm]

my turn

@BitMaxz
ok. Hiren's tool is in my "repair-tool-kit". I will give Clonezilla a try.
thanks

@NotATether
The filesystem is ext3. I thought i clone the 500GB to 2TB.
The 2TB will have ext3 as well.
But i guess i copy the boot sector and the partition table from the 500GB also to the new 2TB hdd.
And now my new 2TB hdd "thinks" because of the clone-process ok im 500GB. same as before/problem not solved.


now my new thought's.
Maybe ill start just new.
install linux on the new 2TB which is build in the laptop.
install BitcoinQT wallet .
Start BitcoinQT wallet once (let create folders),and close Program again.
Connect old 500GB with USB to laptop.
Copy the BIG Blockchain and wallet_dat from 500GB to 2TB , thats about 311GB.
restart system.
Start BitcoinQT.
Done.
Problem solved.

Sounds good to me, i hope there is not a stumbling block in my "new start strategy"

[NotATether]

now my new thought's.
Maybe ill start just new.
install linux on the new 2TB which is build in the laptop.
install BitcoinQT wallet .
Start BitcoinQT wallet once (let create folders),and close Program again.
Connect old 500GB with USB to laptop.
Copy the BIG Blockchain and wallet_dat from 500GB to 2TB , thats about 311GB.
restart system.
Start BitcoinQT.
Done.
Problem solved.

Sounds good to me, i hope there is not a stumbling block in my "new start strategy"

Yeah, what you're suggesting to do is much safer than using a partitioning tool to delete the ext3 filesystem and recreate an identical ext3 over it but with a larger size.

You probably should not start bitcoin-qt before copying the bitcoin folder though because it will download the blockchain all over again. You should copy the entire /home/username/.bitcoin folder from the first drive to the second and then start bitcoin-qt. Then it will see it's previous state from when you last ran it.

Also, the restart after you copy the bitcoin folder and install bitcoin-qt is unnecessary. There's no need to restart after doing these things.

[mocacinno]

--snip--
now my new thought's.
Maybe ill start just new.
install linux on the new 2TB which is build in the laptop.
install BitcoinQT wallet .
Start BitcoinQT wallet once (let create folders),and close Program again.
Connect old 500GB with USB to laptop.
Copy the BIG Blockchain and wallet_dat from 500GB to 2TB , thats about 311GB.
restart system.
Start BitcoinQT.
Done.
Problem solved.

Sounds good to me, i hope there is not a stumbling block in my "new start strategy"

I think you don't have to start bitcoinqt wallet once... just sync ~/.bitcoin from your old disk to your new disk, then start your wallet...

[bitcalm]

great. i have one unused 2TB seagate hdd here in my place.
https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/pict/163367933257_/Seagate-Expansion-Plus-2TB-25-Portable-Drive.jpg
Since i want to build it in the notebook ill take it appart and build it in the notebook.

Should i still use Ext3 filesystem? or , Ext4, XFS and is it possible to format it in one big partition.
i use the notebook only as BTC wallet, once a week i start it up let blockchain download/update.

[NotATether]

great. i have one unused 2TB seagate hdd here in my place.

Since i want to build it in the notebook ill take it appart and build it in the notebook.

Should i still use Ext3 filesystem? or , Ext4, XFS and is it possible to format it in one big partition.
i use the notebook only as BTC wallet, once a week i start it up let blockchain download/update.

I'd go with ext4 which is the newer version of ext3 and is more better-performing than ext3. Instead of directly putting ext4 on the drive though I suggest creating an LVM partition if the Linux installer gives you that option, and then choose to install ext4 (or some other filesystem) inside the LVM partition. This setup will allow you to easily expand your partitions without reinstalling Linux should you ever need more space in the future.

You probably don't because this is a notebook running bitcoin-qt but I just wanted to mention it because it's really useful


But if you want my opinion, I always choose the XFS filesystem over ext4 if the Linux distribution supports it, because it's journaling is better than in ext4, and my disks are being used in an environment where power outages are frequent and in all of those occasions I haven't had a single filesystem corruption error in my XFS drives.

A power failure however will still screw up bitcoin-qt's blockchain data. This just prevents the filesystem from being messed up with it since that'll prevent booting.

TL;DR, just use ext4 by itself and keep it simple 

[bitcalm]

ok. its on.

after the hardware part was done.
rip out new 2TB hdd from external case.
put 2TB in a laptop-hdd-frame.
install linux on the 2TB laptop.

i found out its better (for me) to keep the 500GB in system
and connect 2TB hdd via usb adapter and copy files over.
because im not so firm with filestructur of linux , this way i find the files better.


i want to install bitcoin_0.20.1.tar.gz "newest version for linux",
i hope i can use the blockchain(369GB) from the bitcoin_0.15.1.tar.gz


now ill have to wait about 4 hours "file transfer 369GB" .


I will keep you up to date
later

[bitcalm]

Well it does not go well with bitcoinqt.
I have ubuntu-mate installed but i cant get the bitcoinqt client to work.
Lots of dependencies are missing.

With pointlinux i did installed bitcoinqt 3 years ago. but latest version is from 2016.

i have learnt so far first install bitcoinqt then copy the 369GB blockchain (took 4 hours)

i tryed the tar.gz file and a .deb file.

the way in terminal --->

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bitcoin/bitcoin

sudo apt update

sudo apt install bitcoin-qt bitcoind

>------ does not work. error message in terminal is like GPG-error my public key is not available. the Depot is not signed.

[mocacinno]

It would be usefull if you'd copy the terminal output, so we can have a look aswell... It's kind of hard to see that happened like this

[HCP]

Well it does not go well with bitcoinqt.
I have ubuntu-mate installed but i cant get the bitcoinqt client to work.
Lots of dependencies are missing.
...
i tryed the tar.gz file and a .deb file.

What happened when you downloaded and extracted the .tar.gz file and tried to run bitcoin-qt? Can you provide the exact error messages as shown on the terminal?

[BitMaxz]

the way in terminal --->

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bitcoin/bitcoin

sudo apt update

sudo apt install bitcoin-qt bitcoind

>------ does not work. error message in terminal is like GPG-error my public key is not available. the Depot is not signed.

The repository from Bitcoin/bitcoin is too old it might be the reason why you get some error.

Try to use the command below from Luke-jr it was updated last August 2020

Code:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:luke-jr/bitcoincore
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bitcoind

And let us know if you still get the error using this command.

[bitcalm]

The repository from Bitcoin/bitcoin is too old it might be the reason why you get some error.

Try to use the command below from Luke-jr it was updated last August 2020

Code:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:luke-jr/bitcoincore
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bitcoind

And let us know if you still get the error using this command.

ok this did the job. thanks BitMaxz

i had to install ubuntu again because it worked with ppa:bitcoin/bitcoin somehow.
after i found out how to sign and stuff like GPG Key Apt Repository Errors (NO_PUBKEY).
i deleted libre office (save hdd space) and installed lots of debian.deb lib files in the
system so i thought better start fresh install.

its installed but not started yet.
i think i start it and select the default data directory.
stop it and then copy the 369GB data and wallet.dat to the right folder.

i start the bitcoin core from start-button (hmmm it used to be bitcoinqt) and nothing happens.
i cant Start in terminal (what to type? bitcoincore and bitcoinqt did not work)
btw i have a 32bit system.
ubuntu-mate-18.04.5-desktop-i386 1,9GB
its already late for me. im off and keep continue tomorow

[NotATether]

i start the bitcoin core from start-button (hmmm it used to be bitcoinqt) and nothing happens.
i cant Start in terminal (what to type? bitcoincore and bitcoinqt did not work)
btw i have a 32bit system.
ubuntu-mate-18.04.5-desktop-i386 1,9GB

The command to start Bitcoin QT is bitcoin-qt. That's what you should use to start it if the error was "Command not found."

If it's a different error, post it here. If there's no output at all but it just fails silently, then paste the contents of /home/<YOUR USERNAME>/.bitcoin/debug.log.

[bitcalm]

when i type bitcoin-qt in terminal .
bash : / /usr/local/bin/bitcoin-qt cannot execute the binary file: error in the format of the program file.  (thats some leftovers from my tar.gz install.)

and there is no .bitcoin folder in my /home/<YOUR USERNAME>/
i have hiddenfiles enabled ( i see other folders like .cache .gnupg .local)

when i right click the icon on start button i only can pin the icon to desktop what i did.
when i right click the icon on desktop and select properties
place is /home/MYUSERNAME/desktop
disk unknown
but i dont find where it is installed just the icon at desktop what i have pinned to desktop

[mocacinno]

when i type bitcoin-qt in terminal .
bash : / /usr/local/bin/bitcoin-qt cannot execute the binary file: error in the format of the program file.  (thats some leftovers from my tar.gz install.)

and there is no .bitcoin folder in my /home/<YOUR USERNAME>/
i have hiddenfiles enabled ( i see other folders like .cache .gnupg .local)

the error makes me wonder if you downloaded the correct version... I wouldn't be supprised if you were trying to run a binary that wasn't compiled for your architecture.
try these commands:

Code:

readelf -h /usr/local/bin/bitcoin-qt
file /usr/local/bin/bitcoin-qt

Also, the .bitcoin folder will be generated by running bitcoind or bitcoin-qt. Since you couldn't run the binary, the folder wasn't created.

About the folder: read my first post... You don't need to run bitcoind, you can copy the .bitcoin folder before starting bitcoind or bitcoin-qt for the first time. This way, a new wallet won't be generated, and you won't have to deal with the confusion of finding 2 identically named wallets.

[bitcalm]

readelf -h /usr/local/bin/bitcoin-qt
ELF-Header:
  Magic:   7f 45 4c 46 02 01 01 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
  Klasse:                            ELF64
  Daten:                             2er-Komplement, Little-Endian
  Version:                           1 (current)
  OS/ABI:                            UNIX - GNU
  ABI-Version:                       0
  Typ:                               DYN (geteilte Objektadatei)
  Maschine:                          Advanced Micro Devices X86-64
  Version:                           0x1
  Einstiegspunktadresse:               0x1c3e80
  Beginn der Programm-Header:          64 (Bytes in Datei)
  Beginn der Sektions-header:          31841000 (Bytes in Datei)
  Flags:                             0x0
  Größe dieses Headers:              64 (Byte)
  Größe der Programm-Header:         56 (Byte)
  Number of program headers:         10
  Größe der Sektions-Header:         64 (bytes)
  Anzahl der Sektions-Header:        34
  Sektions-Header Stringtabellen-Index: 33
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/usr/local/bin/bitcoin-qt
/usr/local/bin/bitcoin-qt: ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, x86-64, version 1 (GNU/Linux), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, for GNU/Linux 3.2.0, BuildID[sha1]=82bc25b0f2ebe1bc6f85acc8452eab4f6554c4cc, stripped

[mocacinno]

readelf -h /usr/local/bin/bitcoin-qt
ELF-Header:
--snip--
  Maschine:                          Advanced Micro Devices X86-64
--snip--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/usr/local/bin/bitcoin-qt
/usr/local/bin/bitcoin-qt: ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, x86-64, version 1 (GNU/Linux), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, for GNU/Linux 3.2.0, BuildID[sha1]=82bc25b0f2ebe1bc6f85acc8452eab4f6554c4cc, stripped

So my assumption was wrong... Since you were talking about a notebook, i can only assume it's indeed an x86 architecture... but just to be sure, can you try:

Code:

uname -a

if you see x86_64, the binary should be compiled for your architecture

[bitcalm]

uname -a
Linux MYUSERNAME 5.4.0-59-generic #65~18.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Mon Dec 14 16:02:42 UTC 2020 i686 i686 i686 GNU/Linux

its a dell inspiron 6400