Quote from: romec1701 on July 27, 2017, 10:55:50 AM

I am going from Vista (I know - hence the reason for doing it) to Win 7, with a custom install to go from 32-bit to 64-bit (so I can put more RAM in).
I think I lose my programmes in doing that.

I will save the Bitcoin qt data (I know where that is stored) as well as backing up the wallet in several places. But again question comes down to when I reinstall the Core client will it a) recosgnise the wallet and be able to access it and b) despite the fact that I have pruned the blockhain down to 2Gb it will still be in synch without having to redownload the whole thing?

If answer to both is yes, I guess I am good to go.
If either is no then I dont think I will run a full node and instead go for something like Electrum, but then the question is will that software recognise and be able to access the Core wallet.dat, or do I have to open an Electrum wallet and send my BTC to it via a transaction (with fees etc)?

1.Electrum functions differently than Bitcoin core so I am afraid it will not recognize the wallet.dat you will save from your Bitcoin core wallet.

2. Bitcoin core will recognize the wallet if you do as ranochigo said and copy all the folder where bitcoin core data is placed.

3. Normally it should not download again the blockchain if you copy paste the data directory to the new installation in Windows 7. Worst case you need to start your bitcoin core wallet with the "-reindex" command and it will download again the blockchain for you. In the end it should work normally.