Topic: Transfer my bitcoin full node to another HD or PC (Read 109 times)
Thanks @mocacinno, @Cricktor, @OcTradism for your help, I managed to get the node working perfectly on my other computer. I copied all the blockchain files to an external HD. I installed bitcoin core, and set this folder (external HD) as the default to save the blockchain, it recognized it, synchronized it and that's it. It was quite simple. Now I have 2 nodes
If you have a Bitcoin full node, run it on a first computer and fully complete initial blockchain download, it will not take long time to sync it with the blockchain after that. The initial blockchain download takes most of syncing time, not later block syncing.
With that data on your first computer, or HD, you can copy it to a second computer and run your full node there. It will not take a long time to complete the syncing progress on the second computer.
However, it is different if what you have is a prune node on a first computer.
With that data on your first computer, or HD, you can copy it to a second computer and run your full node there. It will not take a long time to complete the syncing progress on the second computer.
However, it is different if what you have is a prune node on a first computer.
Hello everyone, I have been running my bitcoin full node for a few days now, I would like to have it on my other computer...Can I transfer this node to another location? and haven the same node running on 2 computers? How do I do this safely? I wouldn't want to sync the entire blockchain again, sorry if my question seems stupid...
Shutdown your node on the source computer, this ensures all blockchain data is written properly to disk (better always wait until Bitcoin Core happily closes). If all your node's data files are in one directory (with subdirectories inside), copy the whole to the destination computer. When all files have been copied, check if you have file or directory path entries in config files like bitcoin.conf which need to be adjusted for the destination computer.
If everything is fine, you can start your node (assuming Bitcoin Core) on your destination computer and if you want also on your source computer. Running both nodes simultanously doesn't break something, even if you open the same wallet file on both nodes (assuming your wallets are HD wallets; legacy wallets which contain independent private keys should better not be opened on different nodes as under certain conditions (need to extend the keystore due to exhausting available keys) will result in different keystore contents in the wallets; not recommended!).
In that case, it should indeed be possible, here's info from the bitcoin wiki:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Data_directory#Transferability
It kind of depends on your OS, if it's windows, IIRC the default directory is %appdata%/Bitcoin so you could just copy everything in %appdata%/Bitcoin to %appdata%/Bitcoin on your "new" pc, if it's linux, the default directory is ~/.bitcoin (so copy ~/.bitcoin to the new pc). At least, this is what it can remember from when i was running my own node (which, in all honestly, has been a while, so my memory is quite rusty).
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Data_directory#Transferability
It kind of depends on your OS, if it's windows, IIRC the default directory is %appdata%/Bitcoin so you could just copy everything in %appdata%/Bitcoin to %appdata%/Bitcoin on your "new" pc, if it's linux, the default directory is ~/.bitcoin (so copy ~/.bitcoin to the new pc). At least, this is what it can remember from when i was running my own node (which, in all honestly, has been a while, so my memory is quite rusty).
If you *were* talking about the syncing process: moving the downloaded blockchain from one device to a second device is usually also possible.
Exactly what I would like to know
Moving the blockchain files I have from point A to point B... in this case another computer with another HD... the wallet I'm not doing anything for now. I'm still in the learning phase of how to operate the bitcoin core and what I can do with it. Soon I believe I will be able to connect my hardwallet to it, check balances, sign messages and everything else. But I will only do this when I feel capable...
These are my first days with fullnode, wanting to learn a little more
you can do this. After reading your post, it looks like you're more concerned about running the same wallet on two computers than the blockchain syncing process (if i'm not mistaking).
If you use the reference bitcoin node (bitcoin core), it's as simple as copying the wallet.dat from your initial node to the second node. It doesn't matter if you run two nodes with the same wallet... The network doesn't care, they don't know anything about you, except when you broadcast a signed transaction spending unspent outputs, but they don't care who signed said transaction. You can only spend one unspent output once, but it doesn't matter which wallet you used to do the actual signing.
There's actually no limit... Theoretically, you could run the same wallet on 100 nodes running on any OS you can imagine. Every wallet should (theoretically) show the same wallet balance, and if you use one of these wallets to spend funds, the balance should be updated everywhere you imported the same wallet.dat.
If you *were* talking about the syncing process: moving the downloaded blockchain from one device to a second device is usually also possible.
If you use the reference bitcoin node (bitcoin core), it's as simple as copying the wallet.dat from your initial node to the second node. It doesn't matter if you run two nodes with the same wallet... The network doesn't care, they don't know anything about you, except when you broadcast a signed transaction spending unspent outputs, but they don't care who signed said transaction. You can only spend one unspent output once, but it doesn't matter which wallet you used to do the actual signing.
There's actually no limit... Theoretically, you could run the same wallet on 100 nodes running on any OS you can imagine. Every wallet should (theoretically) show the same wallet balance, and if you use one of these wallets to spend funds, the balance should be updated everywhere you imported the same wallet.dat.
If you *were* talking about the syncing process: moving the downloaded blockchain from one device to a second device is usually also possible.
Hello everyone, I have been running my bitcoin full node for a few days now, I would like to have it on my other computer...Can I transfer this node to another location? and haven the same node running on 2 computers? How do I do this safely? I wouldn't want to sync the entire blockchain again, sorry if my question seems stupid...
Unfortunately, If you copy the entire blockchain data to another system and run the full node, then you have to re-sync it with the network. But, It won't take too much time like when you download the blockchain for the first time. I could be wrong, but I guess i have read this somewhere in this forum. If you have a good internet connection, why not downlad the whole blockchain again? It won't take much longer time. I downloaded the entire blockchainw with 20mbps speed and it took around a week for me. My system is not that high end. If you have a good rig and good internet connection, then I recommend you to download the blockchain again.
Hello everyone, I have been running my bitcoin full node for a few days now, I would like to have it on my other computer...Can I transfer this node to another location? and haven the same node running on 2 computers? How do I do this safely? I wouldn't want to sync the entire blockchain again, sorry if my question seems stupid...
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