Thanks for the tip. I tried mintpal and it's amazing....already did the transaction. No registering....awesome...

I don't want to bother registering for coinbase or some company that collects a ton of personal information, but I really do want to trade some of my btc for dark coins. Any idea the easiest way to do this?

If I just open up the .dat file in note pad and it opens it shouldn't be corrupt then right?

ummmm...ok, so I'd have to load it up on another computer, confirm that my bitcoins are there, then destroy the .dat file on my computer (whilre preserving the one on my usb key obviously.) Is there another way to confirm it's not corrupt? I'd rather not have to load it onto another computer...

My friend suggested that once I've deleted my wallet to use the drive wiper feature in cc cleaner and set it to 3 passes, that should do it, do you agree?

Ok,, so just to be 10000000% sure, I'm going to export my .dat file, hide it on a few usb keys, then delete my bitcoin wallet, and write over my drive. There is no chance I will lose my btc....right? Right, ,this has been confirmed but I'm still nervous about it!!!

That's great, ok, one more question, how to you re-install you bitcoins from a .dat file?

I guess this is a pretty simple question, but before I go ahead and do this I want to make sure I know what I'm talking about.

I have a BTC wallet on a computer and wish to remove it (completely, as in uninstall it,) and back up my bitcoins to 3 usb drives (I will keep a few on my phone, but the rest of my coins I want stored offline and to be unavailable.)

When I go to my wallet there's a "back up wallet" option under file, which once initiated leaves a .dat file on my desktop. Now what I want to know is, is that .dat file a full back up of my bitcoins? In other words, if I put that .dat file on my usb keys, can I then uninstall my wallet completely and be able to recover my bitcoins in the future from my usb keys? Also, if someone stole my computer, would they be able to somehow re-install my wallet and have access to my bitcoins? My goal is to hide my coins and permanently make them unavailable from my computer. Am I missing something here? Please confirm. Thanks in advance!!!