Topic: The database is inevitably corrupt (Read 1142 times)

no, we don't.
http://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet

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It doesn't matter what wallet he uses if his hardware is flaky it will always cause problems for him. So that is why I recommended he test his hard drive.

The guy clearly doesn't need qt. He said "How do people normally do bitcoin transactions?"

He just wants to do normal transactions, and you point out yourself so vividly all the stresses qt places on a typical system.

Have you ever tried electrum? It places no strain on your system, and is running in 2 minutes ..... and yes, its stable as well.

We want to get normal people using bitcoin and keep recommending they use qt. What gives?

Bitcoin itself is experimental and risky. So no there is no uber stable bitcoin wallet software.

But the problems you are facing are definitely extraordinary. I suspect there is a problem with your PC's hardware. Bitcoin-QT puts a lot of stress on your PC when it is downloading the blockchain. The hard disk, CPU and maybe RAM is stressed the most. If your hardware is not up to scratch it can fail under the stress. I suggest you do a scan for bad sectors on your hard drive. Repeated corruption of the database suggests a failing hard drive.

Sorry Prome, but what does that mean?

Thanks for the advise everyone.

Look in this topic. You MUST use PC client of wallet? There's plenty of online wallets to use
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/simplest-easyist-wallet-372459

You can easly generate wallet (even nice paper version) too, here:
https://www.bitaddress.org

Use electrum (electrum.org) if you just want to perform transactions. There is no "downloading of the blockchain" which as you say, is a complete PITA

google "bitcoin blockchain wallet" or just get an account at coinbase.com

Not once have I been able to install a Bitcoin-QT wallet without it being corrupt. I get the "Database corrupt" error box as it scans the database for the first time. The only option is to click "Ok" and then the whole thing shuts down. If I start it again I get the error immediately and once again it shuts down, so it is a catch 22. I can't rescan the database.

I have tried a number of things like deleting the .bitcoin directory or just deleting the database files in that directory. That allows bitcoin-QT to restart, but before it is finished rescanning the database I get the corrupt error again.

I have tried to installing it from a variety of sources both on my Suse 12.3, 64 bit machine and my wife's Windows XP machine. The Linux machine has 230 GB of free space on the HHD. I'm not sure about the XP machine.

I have tried about 14 times to install a wallet now. What is the problem? Are wallets always fragile and prone to corruption? I'm trying to wrap my head around this whole bitcoin thing, but can't even get to first base. Can anyone explain to me what is going on?

Also, I notice that bitcoin-QT is experimental software. Is there an application out here that is not experimental? With millions of dollars being exchanged there has to be a solid, fool proof application out there. What is it? How do people normally do bitcoin transactions?

Thanks.