Assist question in running a node

[hmbdofficial]

So yesterday I decided to set up a node and I was able to download the bitcoincore did the setup and it started the pre sync header then i realized I didn’t not tick the prune box so I went to setting and did that. Then  a message poped that the setting I did will require me to download old blocks,  should I just start the node afresh or continue that way?

[LoyceV]

should I just start the node afresh or continue that way?

Yes.

[hmbdofficial]

should I just start the node afresh or continue that way?

Yes.

Sorry I don’t get what the “yes” implies, does it mean I should start over again?

[DireWolfM14]

I don't recall if the prune setting requires a restart of the Bitcoin Core, but it can't hurt.  Just exit bitcoin core and restart the application.

It still needs to download the entire blockchain, but it'll purge older blocks to maintain the hard drive space limit you've set in the dialog box next to the check box.

[LoyceV]

Sorry I don’t get what the “yes” implies, does it mean I should start over again?

Yes, you should either restart if you want to enable pruning or continue.

[Grace333]

Sorry I don’t get what the “yes” implies, does it mean I should start over again?

Yes, you should either restart if you want to enable pruning or continue.

I think i understand the situation here, OP restarting the node doesn't just mean deleting and reinstalling a new, if you don't you are likely to resume from the previous setup. However what I recommend is tracing the files to their storage location on your computer and delete all EXE files as regards the node, that way when you delete and reinstall the node again it would start from the beginning of the setup process. Hope this helped.

[nc50lc]

-snip- should I just start the node afresh or continue that way?

Depends on your use-case, what will you use the node for?

If your reason for running a node is just for your currently loaded wallet(s) and new wallets that you'll create, then it's good enough.

But if it's for various projects that requires the blockchain and other database, it's obvious that you're going to need to disable pruning.
Restoring/Loading and syncing existing wallet.dat files will also be a problem in prune mode since you can only rescan blocks that aren't pruned yet.
You'll be limited to the wallets that are already loaded during sync and the ones that are new with transactions in your not-yet-deleted blocks.

But, as the warning implies, doing so requires your node to download and verify the blockchain again.

[nakamura12]

should I just start the node afresh or continue that way?

Yes.

Sorry I don’t get what the “yes” implies, does it mean I should start over again?

If I understand correctly, it means that it's either you continue what you have started or start over again. In my opinion, I think you want to run bitcoin node with pruning so, the answer you are looking for is to start over again where you have to set it up again but if you do have the storage needed then you can just continue as it is although it will download all old data until now which as I have explained it will use a lot of storage. As of now and according to what I found is that the full bitcoin node requires 700+GB up to 800+GB so, it's recommended to have 1TB or 2 terabytes of storage space. For pruned bitcoin node is that it's around 10GB or less but it's better if you have 1TB storage space.

[OcTradism]

So yesterday I decided to set up a node and I was able to download the bitcoincore did the setup and it started the pre sync header then i realized I didn’t not tick the prune box so I went to setting and did that. Then  a message poped that the setting I did will require me to download old blocks,  should I just start the node afresh or continue that way?

Full node or prune node, you will have to do Initial Blockchain Download aka IBD.

Full node is better than prune node.
The blockchain needs to be downloaded by yourself, and don't rely on any link of blockchain snapshot because you don't know what's in that snapshot, it can steal your bitcoins by wrong information about UTXOs that can affect your transactions.

Bitcoin Core pruned blockchain: download it here! (DON'T DO THIS!)
Read it to know why LoyceV told that don't do this.

Boost Your Bitcoin Node Sync With UTXO Snapshots

[nc50lc]

For pruned bitcoin node is that it's around 10GB or less

Sorry for the nitpick but that isn't enough for the UTXO-set alone (chainstate).
The chainstate directory now more than 10GiB at the moment, and if we add the other datadir files like persistent mempool at max size (to be saved on shutdown) and his pruned Blockchain,
he'll need at least 12+GiB for a full node in prune mode in minimum setting.

[ABCbits]

For pruned bitcoin node is that it's around 10GB or less

Sorry for the nitpick but that isn't enough for the UTXO-set alone (chainstate).
The chainstate directory now more than 10GB at the moment, and if we add the other datadir files like persistent mempool at max size (to be saved on shutdown) and his pruned Blockchain,
he'll need at least 12+GB for a full node in prune mode in minimum setting.

FWIW peak UTXO size was 12.8GB[1]. So combining it with minimum prune size (550MB) and other files, personally i would say he need 13.5GB+ free space.

[1] https://statoshi.info/d/000000009/unspent-transaction-output-set?orgId=1&from=now-5y&to=now&timezone=browser&refresh=10m

[nc50lc]

FWIW peak UTXO size was 12.8GB[1].

Ah, that's around early 2025 according to the graph.
Makes sense if he want to accommodate the same peak size, but it's still recommended to go higher (+) as we suggested.

Additionally, it looks like I've referenced my chainstate's "GiB" size instead of "GB". (I'll edit the unit in my reply)

[hmbdofficial]

Running the bitcoin core prone node and the power went off, I assume the system isn’t saving the file since it’s a prone node. Then I was a bit apprehensive, so in my head it will start again. But when I boot the system and run the app it actually continued from the percentage I have synchronised does that mean it’s actually downloading and keeping the block in the range of the prone i set i the prone block storage of 2GB i set, while deleting the block that aren’t in the range?

[Hashura]

Running the bitcoin core prone node and the power went off, I assume the system isn’t saving the file since it’s a prone node. Then I was a bit apprehensive, so in my head it will start again. But when I boot the system and run the app it actually continued from the percentage I have synchronised does that mean it’s actually downloading and keeping the block in the range of the prone i set i the prone block storage of 2GB i set, while deleting the block that aren’t in the range?

Yes, it only keeps the most recent blocks. Regarding power interruptions, if you let the node shut down abruptly, you risk getting the data corrupted and losing all your progress, which means you will have to re-download from the start again. You should consider using a UPS, so that you will have enough time to shut down Bitcoin Core gracefully.

[nc50lc]

Running the bitcoin core prone node and the power went off, I assume the system isn’t saving the file since it’s a prone node. -snip-

The block files?
It downloads, verify and delete blocks as it sync, without skipping a block height.
So on a side note: Since it verifies the whole blockchain, it's a "full node" regardless of the famous term "prune node" which is probably inspired by "prune mode" when a full node is set to prune its block storage.

For the UTXO-set which is part of the syncing process, it does periodically, But it's first saved in your cache,
I'm sure you know already that Bitcoin Core has a cache (that you can increase with dbcache) where your cached UTXO set is temporarily saved.
But when needed, it saves it to your disk in batches (max size determined by dbbatchsize), e.g.: once the cache is full.

About the mentioned "corruption" above, it usually happens when it's within the process of flushing from cache to disk.
Or basically anytime when something is being written to your disk but it's abruptly interrupted.
You'll see the affected file in your "debug.log" file if that happens, it also comes with an error.

-snip- does that mean it’s actually downloading and keeping the block in the range of the prone i set i the prone block storage of 2GB i set, while deleting the block that aren’t in the range?

Yes, but it's not 100% accurate on the size, it may go a bit over or lower than your prune settings so keep a good amount of wiggle room in your free disk space.