Issue with btc nodes data download

[HeatBit]

To all the members who have successfully run a bitcoin node before, do any of you came across a problem with the internet where your downloading is very slow but your internet speed is very fast?

Id I download anything else I get over 70Mbps but download Bitcoin node just seem very sluggish like it's going to take decades to get everything ready.

I also want to know if it's possible to download Bitcoin node files from elsewhere and somehow load it up? Like moving the mode files and make it work? Is this possible?

[BlackHatCoiner]

Downloading is not the bottleneck. Verification is. How much RAM do you have, and do you use HDD drive or SSD? If you're syncing on an HDD, it will take many days, even weeks.

I also want to know if it's possible to download Bitcoin node files from elsewhere and somehow load it up? Like moving the mode files and make it work? Is this possible?

Don't ever do that. Theoretically you can download the blockchain from elsewhere, but it comes with risks with absolutely no upside. Bitcoin Core initial block download taking a long time is the problem that needs to be fixed.

[Cookdata]

To all the members who have successfully run a bitcoin node before, do any of you came across a problem with the internet where your downloading is very slow but your internet speed is very fast?

Hope you are using ssd and not hdd, it may contribute.
If you have big ram up to 4gb, increase your Dbcache to 2000 or higher and restart the node. Check your inbound connections too, sometimes they disconnect if your internet lag and your download maybe slow with few peers.

Id I download anything else I get over 70Mbps but download Bitcoin node just seem very sluggish like it's going to take decades to get everything ready.

70mbps looks big but is not megabyte per second, it's megabits but this is good enough to give you average download and sync for couple of days. Try increase your dbcache.

I also want to know if it's possible to download Bitcoin node files from elsewhere and somehow load it up? Like moving the mode files and make it work? Is this possible?

It's possible but it's a bad practice. Don't trust but verify.

Here a link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5177528.0

Don't do it.

[HeatBit]

Downloading is not the bottleneck. Verification is. How much RAM do you have, and do you use HDD drive or SSD? If you're syncing on an HDD, it will take many days, even weeks.

I also want to know if it's possible to download Bitcoin node files from elsewhere and somehow load it up? Like moving the mode files and make it work? Is this possible?

Don't ever do that. Theoretically you can download the blockchain from elsewhere, but it comes with risks with absolutely no upside. Bitcoin Core initial block download taking a long time is the problem that needs to be fixed.

I'm running a 9800X 3D CPU from AMD
With 16gig RAM

And yes 🙂‍↕️ I am downloading into a HDD
Since this is the only way I have presently.

I can't afford a NVME ssd right now, they are way too overpriced.
Now I understand, thank you.

[Patikno]

Downloading is not the bottleneck. Verification is. How much RAM do you have, and do you use HDD drive or SSD? If you're syncing on an HDD, it will take many days, even weeks.

I also want to know if it's possible to download Bitcoin node files from elsewhere and somehow load it up? Like moving the mode files and make it work? Is this possible?

Don't ever do that. Theoretically you can download the blockchain from elsewhere, but it comes with risks with absolutely no upside. Bitcoin Core initial block download taking a long time is the problem that needs to be fixed.

I'm running a 9800X 3D CPU from AMD
With 16gig RAM

And yes 🙂‍↕️ I am downloading into a HDD
Since this is the only way I have presently.

I can't afford a NVME ssd right now, they are way too overpriced.
Now I understand, thank you.

If you have a large amount of RAM, you can try increasing the Database Cache size in the "bitcoin.conf" file. You can find this file in the folder where you installed the application.

For example, if you have 16GB of RAM, you can enter "dbcache=15625". Essentially, the more RAM you allocate, the faster the syncing process will be.

Your internet connection should be fine at that speed (the one you are using), but is your internet connection limited? or, does it have a fair usage policy (FUP)? Because, it could also be the cause.

By the way, I recommend you upgrade to an SSD as soon as you can afford it. Your processor needs one to run optimally.

[AakZaki]

I'm running a 9800X 3D CPU from AMD
With 16gig RAM

And yes 🙂‍↕️ I am downloading into a HDD
Since this is the only way I have presently.

I can't afford a NVME ssd right now, they are way too overpriced.
Now I understand, thank you.

Code:

getblockchaininfo
{
  "chain": "main",
  "blocks": 948507,
  "headers": 948507,
  "bestblockhash": "00000000000000000001d24cbd4cc32c15dd96706ad63982244eada0bb46ffd6",
  "bits": "17021ff0",
  "target": "000000000000000000021ff00000000000000000000000000000000000000000",
  "difficulty": 132472011079030.5,
  "time": 1778273124,
  "mediantime": 1778269297,
  "verificationprogress": 1,
  "initialblockdownload": false,
  "chainwork": "0000000000000000000000000000000000000001260e6c2b9215c9de6072b954",
  "size_on_disk": 841970486982,
  "pruned": false,
  "warnings": [
  ]
}

I would say Downloading Bitcoin Core will not be less than 70 hours, it can even be more, a few months ago I downloaded Full Node Bitoin, the time I spent downloading was approximately 75 hours.
I tricked some of the data, namely the chainstate folder to the SSD with the symbolic link method, while the blocks folder remained on the HDD.

Actually, that long time is not just about downloading, but reading the data one by one until the end.

So when you only use Full HDD in the download process, just leave it in the background and not see it for at least 70 hours or more. Because if you keep waiting for it, it's really boring.

[mcdouglasx]

The bottleneck here isn't the download itself, but the sequential blockchain verification process that guarantees data validity. In other words, your tap might deliver a lot of water, but the distillation process needs to process that water drop by drop, and this can't be parallelized because each block depends on the previous one. The resulting hash from the previous block is used in the next block, hence the term "chain" in its name. It's this technical reason why it takes longer.

[Alphakilo]

Downloading is not the bottleneck. Verification is. How much RAM do you have, and do you use HDD drive or SSD? If you're syncing on an HDD, it will take many days, even weeks.

I also want to know if it's possible to download Bitcoin node files from elsewhere and somehow load it up? Like moving the mode files and make it work? Is this possible?

Don't ever do that. Theoretically you can download the blockchain from elsewhere, but it comes with risks with absolutely no upside. Bitcoin Core initial block download taking a long time is the problem that needs to be fixed.

I'm running a 9800X 3D CPU from AMD
With 16gig RAM

And yes 🙂‍↕️ I am downloading into a HDD
Since this is the only way I have presently.

I can't afford a NVME ssd right now, they are way too overpriced.
Now I understand, thank you.

If you have a large amount of RAM, you can try increasing the Database Cache size in the "bitcoin.conf" file. You can find this file in the folder where you installed the application.

For example, if you have 16GB of RAM, you can enter "dbcache=15625". Essentially, the more RAM you allocate, the faster the syncing process will be.

Your internet connection should be fine at that speed (the one you are using), but is your internet connection limited? or, does it have a fair usage policy (FUP)? Because, it could also be the cause.

By the way, I recommend you upgrade to an SSD as soon as you can afford it. Your processor needs one to run optimally.

The issues one may find as hurdles has more to do with the type of laptop device or external HDD one uses, because we can't actually compare the speed of an old laptop/HDD with a new one.
The database cache to be synced requires on hand adjustment by lowering the node to default 450 or around 1000 to save your system resources.

However we can find that the best way to surpass this kind of arising issues, is to copy the blocks and chain state folders from the data directory of a close friend, to an external drive, before pasting to your own Bitcoin data directory and the node is ready to start after it finishes the normal reindex process.

[X-ray]

I also want to know if it's possible to download Bitcoin node files from elsewhere and somehow load it up? Like moving the mode files and make it work? Is this possible?

I believe that is possible but the integrity of the data is the question, if you are running bitcoin core and sync it in a dedicated server and migrate the data that you downloaded on your own using rsync to your local PC, I guess it's doable.

I have never ever tried it beside just syncing directly because it's just easier. So I don't know if it will really works or not.

[Outhue]

OP why are you in haste? You don't have to speed things up because nodes are something you do in your background and keep using your laptop or PC for something else and it's also good that you have a very powerful AMD CPU that's good for multitasking, I can remember downloading large amount of games on my PC which is up to 2TB, it took me days to see it done, just ignore it and come back after few days, you will notice a big difference.

[hmbdofficial]

Many factors can contribute but to slowness of the verification/validation progress of bitcoin core node, even if you have good internet connection with a very high download sleep of 100mbps and you are using as HDD storage,  it can be slow actually, you need to run the bitcoin node on a device with an SSD storage, and  with a minimum of 8gb RAM  as well, you can still have all those checked and still experience lagging if the peers you’re connected to are slow In relaying transactions to your node. Sometimes you can increase the dbcache to a higher value (maybe 3000) it can speedup the download as well.

[Royal Cap]

I'm running a 9800X 3D CPU from AMD
With 16gig RAM

And yes 🙂‍↕️ I am downloading into a HDD
Since this is the only way I have presently.

I can't afford a NVME ssd right now, they are way too overpriced.
Now I understand, thank you.

What!! are you using a hard disk in such a powerful system? This hard disk is wasting the power of your entire system. Even if it is not NVME, you should definitely shift to SATA SSD. Because if you want to download node / bitcoin core with a hard disk, then it will take you about 1 month. I myself was a victim of such a situation, in 2 days it was downloaded like 3% or 4%. Later I downloaded it again on my SATA SSD. And in just 6-7 days it was totally synced.

[ABCbits]

I'm running a 9800X 3D CPU from AMD
With 16gig RAM

And yes 🙂‍↕️ I am downloading into a HDD
Since this is the only way I have presently.

I can't afford a NVME ssd right now, they are way too overpriced.
Now I understand, thank you.

I also still use HDD to store everything (including chainstate folder that contain UTXO), but with 32GB RAM. Based on my past experience for initial sync, you must set dbcache to about 12.8GB (or a bit more) to ensure all UTXO fit into the RAM to avoid slowdown due to HDD. I mentioned 12.8GB because it was peak UTXO size[1]. But i'm aware allocating that much RAM for dbcache is hard because you only have 16GB RAM. You'll need to close all unused application, configure your OS to use less RAM and ensure even configure your OS to enable compressed RAM[2-3].

P.S. I find it's weird you use such powerful CPU, but also use HDD and 16GB RAM.

[1] https://statoshi.info/d/000000009/unspent-transaction-output-set?orgId=1&from=now-5y&to=now&timezone=browser&refresh=10m
[2] https://www.cnx-software.com/2026/04/15/reminder-enable-zram-on-your-linux-system-to-optimize-ram-usage/
[3] https://www.howtogeek.com/874099/how-to-enable-or-disable-memory-compression-in-windows-11/