Re: Operate Bitcoin Core on a laptop with restricted storage capacity

Quote from: DifDrama on September 22, 2023, 02:09:33 AM

Are there some recommended approaches for running Bitcoin Core on a laptop with constrained storage capacity? Is it possible to use an external hard drive as the data directory (datadir)? How does this setup work, and would I need to pay attention to?

Thank you in advance to everyone who responds to this question.

All what you said is possible, you can run it with a low storage capacity and you can use an external hard drive to have more capacity.

If you use your first option, then you need to prune your BitcoinCore, that means that you will only store a certain amount of blocks according the configuration that you specified.
In order to prune it, you just have to add the following line on bitcoin.conf file:

Code:

prune=10000

This would allow to store all blocks possible in 10Gb if you have 5Gb then use 5000, etc.

For the second option, using an external hard drive, you just have to add the parameter -datadir=$pathToStorage when running the Btc Core:

Code:

bitcoind --datadir=/mnt/data

You can also add that parameter on the bitcoin.conf file so you'll not have to specify it every time. (Use your own /data path)
This article does it with a rapsberry: https://ishaana-misra.medium.com/using-raspberry-pi-to-run-a-full-bitcoin-node-a30c6339b06e
The setup is the same so you can follow the part where she uses the parameter datadir:
- Setting Up The External Hard Drive
- Installing & Running The Bitcoin Core

Hope this helps