new to Bitcoin finding it a bit hard!

[mauinho]

Hello
Pardon my spelling as English is not my main language so allot of technical stuff about  BTC evades me !
I'm new to BTC only started reading and investigating on it for a week or so. I've got a wallet that's still syncing after 4 days is that normal?
Also I've encrypted it and backed it up onto 3 different usb keys even tho I think it's a bit overkill and I don't even have a BTC yet. I also bought sum Darkcoins mostly for testing purposes and they  were cheap and their wallet was much faster at syncing.
MY question is now that I backed up the wallet.dat of both those wallets lets imagine I wanted to transfer it to another computer how would I do that?
There's not option to restore backed up wallet.dat in any of the  clients I have so do I just copy paste it from my usb keys after installing a fresh client on the new computer? also I've renamed the wallet.dat on the  usb's do I have to rename them back to wallet.dat?
Im sorry if these sound like very basic questions and I know and see that many of your are very technical savy but im just an average joe and if BTC has to grow it needs more average Joe's to join and support the  ideal and the  currency I just find the whole system very complicated atm .
Thanks for your replies all help is appreciated.   

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[Pony789]

Hello
Pardon my spelling as English is not my main language so allot of technical stuff about  BTC evades me !
I'm new to BTC only started reading and investigating on it for a week or so. I've got a wallet that's still syncing after 4 days is that normal?

From your post, I assume you are using bitcoin core.
For the initial sync, you need to download 22 GB data and so it may take more time if you have not so much bandwidth.
You could use the bootstrap torrent to speed up the download process.
And you could use thin clients like Electrum or Multibit, and you don't need to download the full blockchain data.

There's not option to restore backed up wallet.dat in any of the  clients I have so do I just copy paste it from my usb keys after installing a fresh client on the new computer? also I've renamed the wallet.dat on the  usb's do I have to rename them back to wallet.dat?

Yes and Yes.
You just need to paste the wallet.dat file to your bitcoin data directory.
If you renamed the file, you need to change the name back to wallet.dat.

[HELP.org]

The Armory Wallet sits on top of the mail Bitcoin client and is much more user-friendly as far as backups are concerned.  I would use that and practice restoring a backup before you put any substantial amount of funds in it.  Don't forget that if a flood or fire it may destroy all your local backups so you want one kept remotely.

[mauinho]

Thanks for you quick reply 
So If I have at least one of those wallet.dat backups up to date and safe even if my wallet (bitcoin core) gets stolen I will always manage to recover it and my coins will be safe?
Also what is a paper wallet back up? I don't really understand it?

[Pony789]

So If I have at least one of those wallet.dat backups up to date and safe even if my wallet (bitcoin core) gets stolen I will always manage to recover it and my coins will be safe?

If you accidentally delete your wallet.dat on your computer, you can get the backup file and your bitcoin is safe.
If someone steals your wallet.dat and somehow gets your password, he will be able to spend your bitcoin and you won't be able to get your bitcoin back.

Also what is a paper wallet back up? I don't really understand it?

In simplest terms, it is a paper with the private key printed on it.
You may take a look at http://www.coindesk.com/information/paper-wallet-tutorial/

[mauinho]

Thank you I will do some testing to familiarize myself with restoring back ups etc etc security is of course first priority and then hopefully the sync should finish today I'll go and invest in my first BTC 
Truth be told I read about BTC 2 years ago and didn't pay  no notice to it thought it was another gimmick it was cheap as chips to buy them back then and last week ran into an article that took me to a trader site and I saw the price it was trading at I couldn't believe it... no idea how you guys have been doing this but BTC has quite the potential now 
thanks for the support I'll be back once I hit a new wall of questions 

[Pony789]

You are welcome.
Feel free to post more questions, there are lots of helpful people here waiting to help you solve the problems.

[Neg]

I reccommend an online blockchain.info wallet for beginners and to get you started. You can try a demo account on their website and it is very safe and secure with many safety features.

[Moneyunmaker]

The hardest part of Bitcoin is owning BTC. 

[Abdullah001]

It is not only for you but also for every new comer in BTC. I suggest you to spend more time on this forum and i hope you will get enough information about BTC.

[melisande]

Frequent visits to the bitcoin forum will strengthen you believe.

[HELP.org]

Bitcoin has public addresses where you receive funds and a secret private key needed to spend the funds.  If someone gets hold of the private key they can spend the funds and you can't them back.  If you lose the private keys you can't spend the funds.  a paper wallet backs up the private keys on paper in case your computer crashed. 

A cold wallet is run a computer that is never connected to the Internet and that keeps your secret private keys.  Hackers can't get to it via the net if you never connect that computer to the internet.

For large amounts you could use a cold wallet with a paper backup in a remote location.

[btcguys]

to add, I'd like to think about Bitcoin public address as a paypal e-mail address. Which is okay to share to receive payments and in Bitcoin case, it is okay to share public key to receive BTC

And, Bitcoin private key is like paypal password, if someone has your paypal password they can spend your funds from paypal account, just like that if someone has your Bitcoin private key, they can spend your Bitcoins.

The only difference is Bitcoin public address is generated from your private key and it is unique for each user. Also, with current technology, it is not possible to create private key with public address.

Oh and you can dispute paypal transactions but BTC transactions are irreversible.

[gelar24]

It is not only for you but also for every new comer in BTC. I suggest you to spend more time on this forum and i hope you will get enough information about BTC.

yes true since I know this forum I got a lot of information and experience of others.

and the most I like is to look for BTC can setikdanya 0.1 BTC per month over here I love it: D

[PangPang]

to add, I'd like to think about Bitcoin public address as a paypal e-mail address. Which is okay to share to receive payments and in Bitcoin case, it is okay to share public key to receive BTC

And, Bitcoin private key is like paypal password, if someone has your paypal password they can spend your funds from paypal account, just like that if someone has your Bitcoin private key, they can spend your Bitcoins.

The only difference is Bitcoin public address is generated from your private key and it is unique for each user. Also, with current technology, it is not possible to create private key with public address.

Oh and you can dispute paypal transactions but BTC transactions are irreversible.

Another difference is that the bitcoin transaction fee is much lower than Paypal.
For example, you can send 10 btc across the global with just a 0.0001 btc transaction fee.