How can I specify an external harddrive as the download target for the Mist blockchain in Ubuntu?

Question

How can I specify an external harddrive as the download target for the Mist blockchain?

Hi there,

I am using Linux Ubuntu 15.10

My harddrive is quite full and I need to download the whole Mist blockchain.

Is it possible to specify an external harddrive as the target for the blockchain and if so, how do I do it?

Even if the blockchain data gets corrupted somehow, it won't affect my wallets, right? I can keep them in a folder on my computer instead of the external harddrive, yes or no?

I. e. I would prefer having the blockchain data on an external drive and the wallet files on my laptop harddrive. Possible or not?

Vesa

score 5 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 13:01

Summary

Q: How can I specify an external harddrive as the download target for the Mist blockchain?

A: The answer for the Mac version is in Method 1 in In Mist browser how can I move the data (blockchain) to another drive on Mac OSX?. The Linux version is below.

Q: Even if the blockchain data gets corrupted somehow, it won't affect my wallets, right? I can keep them in a folder on my computer instead of the external harddrive, yes or no?

A: Yes. Just make sure that you backup ~/.ethereum/keystore.

Q: I. e. I would prefer having the blockchain data on an external drive and the wallet files on my laptop harddrive. Possible or not?

A: Yes.

The Details

The default subdirectory where your Ethereum data files are stored on Linux is ~/.ethereum .

Within this subdirectory, your blockchain data is stored in the subdirectory chaindata, i.e., ~/.ethereum/chaindata .

Let's assume that your new drive is mounted on /mnt/extdrive1 for this example.

Copy your ~/.ethereum/chaindata subdirectory into your new location /mnt/extdrive1/Ethereum/chaindata using the following command:

mkdir /mnt/extdrive1/Ethereum
cp -rpv ~/.ethereum/chaindata /mnt/extdrive1/Ethereum/

A copy of your Ethereum chaindata subdirectory will now be located in /mnt/extdrive1/Ethereum/chaindata.

Rename your default Ethereum chaindata subdirectory for testing:

mv ~/.ethereum/chaindata ~/.ethereum/OldChaindata_to_delete_when_tested

Soft link your new chaindata subdirectory back to the default location:

ln -s /mnt/extdrive1/Ethereum/chaindata ~/.ethereum/chaindata

Test out your Mist browser and delete your old chaindata directory ONLY AFTER your testing is successful:

rm -rf ~/.ethereum/OldChaindata_to_delete_when_tested

References

You should be able to get it working on Windows using the mklink command - see http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/?PageSpeed=noscript (I cannot test as I "burned" my Windows OS many moons ago due to the Windows 10 privacy issues). You could try Method 3 in In Mist browser how can I move the data (blockchain) to another drive on Mac OSX? alternatively. — BokkyPooBah, May 08 '16 at 15:56
That worked great, @BokkyPooBah! For those looking for the code to do this in Windows Vista, 7, 8 or 10: Open command prompt in Windows with administrator privileges, then enter mklink /J folder_path_that_Mist_looks_at folder_path_to_your_desired_location. In my case with Win8 it looks something like this: mklink /J C:\User\Username\AppData\Roaming\Ethereum D:\Etherdata\Ethereum — DirtStats, May 08 '16 at 20:26
The /J indicates that you're linking a folder not a file. You do not need to navigate to a particular folder in command to do this. — DirtStats, May 08 '16 at 20:29
Excellent. I've added a comment to direct My C: drive in my windows PC is almost full. How can I change both geth and Mist path to relocate my blockchain files? to your answer above. — BokkyPooBah, May 08 '16 at 22:55

How can I specify an external harddrive as the download target for the Mist blockchain in Ubuntu?

1 Answers1

Summary

The Details

References

Linked