Sadly I am still three years behind. I don't run my computer 24/7. But, Whenever I run, I let the core download the blocks. Meanwhile, I moved my Bitcoin into an Atomic wallet.
If you aren't running it 24/7, then you might want to consider running a pruned node instead. At least that'll be a reduction in local disk space needed. Otherwise, you'll likely be catching up for a while every day that you restart it. Especially, if you have a slow internet connection.
AnotherAlt, do note that pruning won't affect the IBD (initial block download) speed or sync speed in general. But since the node doesn't run 24/7 it doesn't provide
that much utility to the network anyway, so
might as well run it pruned, is what Welsh is probably saying here. Such a node needs considerably less disk space and gives you as a user all the benefits of a full node, and just lacks the ability to seed the blockchain to new nodes entering the network.
i have internet that is The Suck, so i specifically run it in NOT pruned mode. simply because disk space is cheap and one needs to download the complete blockchain anyway even if you throw much of it out due to pruning. so i keep it all and this allows me to run other software against it (trezor etc).
so i would argue that its better to just keep it all, unless youre really really pinched for space.
also because it would take me months to get the blockchain from scratch again if it gets hosed i have it backed up like crazy. like i keep 5 or 6 copies with regular backups, some in raid 1 and zfs z1/z2