Author

Topic: Backing up wallet...Simple Question (Read 1509 times)

sr. member
Activity: 262
Merit: 250
Dubs Get
January 27, 2012, 02:47:25 PM
#9
Backup more often, better safe than sorry
legendary
Activity: 938
Merit: 1000
What's a GPU?
January 24, 2012, 01:21:17 AM
#8
Just an added confirmation, it is wise to backup every 100 actions, not blocks or addresses.
legendary
Activity: 1148
Merit: 1008
If you want to walk on water, get out of the boat
January 22, 2012, 08:57:41 AM
#7

2.)  Email copy of wallet.dat to myself.

Yes you can but please encrypt it before emailing it to yourself. Giving the private keys to the email service owner? Not a clever thing.
full member
Activity: 210
Merit: 100
January 21, 2012, 07:15:41 PM
#6
Firstly, it's more like doing the backup every 100 actions.
No matter whether you receive funds, send funds, or generate new receiving addresses, each of those actions uses(1) one of the pre-generated keys.

Secondly, you can run bitcoin-qt with the parameter -keypool=  to tweak the pool of pre-generated keys. Sane values are <1000.
Code:
c:\Program Files (x86)\Bitcoin\bitcoin-qt.exe -keypool=256


Notes:
(1) Actually, receiving funds only uses a key from the key-pool if the funds are sent to the address currently listed as "my address". Receiving bitcoins with any other previously-generated address does not influence the key-pool. Therefore, you will generally be safer than you think you are as far as using very old wallet backups is concerned.
legendary
Activity: 1834
Merit: 1020
January 21, 2012, 05:44:34 PM
#5
Yes. But you have to do this every so often (every 100 addresses).

You mean I have to make a copy every 100 addresses that my client creates?  Not every 100 blocks?

I'm pretty sure I'm a lonnnnnng ways off from generating 100 addresses.

Yes. It will take a while. You could also use a parameter to force pre-generation of any number of addresses - although I wouldn't know how.

Awesome, thanks!

BTW if anyone else can confirm that'd be great.
sr. member
Activity: 476
Merit: 250
January 21, 2012, 05:42:08 PM
#4
Yes. But you have to do this every so often (every 100 addresses).

You mean I have to make a copy every 100 addresses that my client creates?  Not every 100 blocks?

I'm pretty sure I'm a lonnnnnng ways off from generating 100 addresses.

Yes. It will take a while. You could also use a parameter to force pre-generation of any number of addresses - although I wouldn't know how.
legendary
Activity: 1834
Merit: 1020
January 21, 2012, 05:40:25 PM
#3
Yes. But you have to do this every so often (every 100 addresses).

You mean I have to make a copy every 100 addresses that my client creates?  Not every 100 blocks?

I'm pretty sure I'm a lonnnnnng ways off from generating 100 addresses.
sr. member
Activity: 476
Merit: 250
January 21, 2012, 05:37:33 PM
#2
Yes. But you have to do this every so often (every 100 addresses).
legendary
Activity: 1834
Merit: 1020
January 21, 2012, 05:35:52 PM
#1
I want to make a simple dual-backup of my wallet.

Can I simply do this?

1.)  Exit client.  Insert USB stick.  Copy wallet.dat to USB stick.   Remove and Store USB stick.
2.)  Email copy of wallet.dat to myself.

In the event that my wallet gets corrupted or lost, I can simply reinsert the wallet.dat back into the roaming/Bitcoin folder and reload the client, correct?
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