Can we use a good HDD like a Western Digital Gold 4TB as a storage device for our node ? I heard it's recommended to use a SSD because bitcoind does a lot of writing / reading but I think it's ok if you get good hardware.
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @nakamozzi 13 Feb 2023 freebie
Running core and electrumx on Raspi4 with cheap 2TB HDD, very slow initial sync but then all working fine.
Don't know if directly related to using an HDD, but it happened a couple of times that power outages totally broke the blocks db and had to resync from scratch.
So putting it all behind an UPS strongly advised IMHO
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61 sats \ 6 replies \ @MathiuJ 12 Feb 2023
I am currently running my node using an old 2016-era laptop with a HDD. Like
@Eximpius and @Roll said, it takes longer to sync at first, but once it has downloaded/validated the chain, the difference is negligible. For reference, it took approximately five weeks for my old HDD laptop to sync up when I first started the node.
The whole idea of Bitcoin is to ensure that the masses don't have to spend a ton of money on specialized equipment to contribute to the network; decentralization mindset makes it so that folks with older, low-spec hardware can still help because of low bandwidth requirements and small block sizes. Even if you don't have an old CPU with enough space to download the entire blockchain, you can still run a pruned node and decide how much space you are will to to dedicate to storing part of the blockchain. Don't spend a lot of money on sexy new hardware if possible; run a node with what you have on hand.
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0 sats \ 4 replies \ @DemandUtopia 13 Feb 2023
Have you ever had to rescan the blockchain for balances -- for example: adding a xpub to help a friend troubleshoot a wallet? How much longer would it take to rescan 1 year or more of transactions?
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0 sats \ 3 replies \ @MathiuJ 13 Feb 2023
I typical don't do these types of things with my node; in your proposed situation I would tell my friend to use Blockonomics Address Tracker (https://www.blockonomics.co/blockonomics#/addresswatcher) or Cointracker (https://www.cointracker.io/) to see the transaction history of their extended public key, vice using the command line commands in Bitcoin Core to look it up on my personal node. I also use https://bitnodes.io/ to track the status of my node, ensuring that it is still visible to the network via incoming connections and thus contributing. But, in general, unless there is a reason for me to not trust what I am seeing on these websites, I just use these other sites for analytic data about the network and my wallets because they have an easier user interface.
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Zazon OP 13 Feb 2023
Spook !!! I would not recommend posting your XPUBs on a website. They can link you're IP address with all your addresses. At least use Tor. Even using Tor all your UTXOs will be linked together by the service and this data can be leaked.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @DemandUtopia 14 Feb 2023
I agree with @zazon, What is the point of running a full node, if you're going to leak your xpubs in other wallet information to hosted services?
You might as well not even run the full node, and just use a SPV wallet like Electrum or Sparrow.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @MathiuJ 14 Feb 2023
I respect that maximizing privacy and/or anonymity in your transactions on the public Bitcoin ledger may be the primary overriding priority for you, @DemandUtopia, and @zazon while running a full node, but that is not the case for me. Thank you for your recommendations concerning extended public keys and unspent transaction outputs; I hope that my comments were of some value to you both as well concerning operation of a node using a HDD.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Zazon OP 12 Feb 2023
Good news ! Still ok to sync with a 2TB HDD under 70usd.
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35 sats \ 1 reply \ @Eximpius 12 Feb 2023
It will work fine, I've done it before
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Eximpius 12 Feb 2023
Might take longer to sync the chain at first though
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30 sats \ 0 replies \ @richnost 13 Feb 2023
I currently run a 6-disk ZRAID on WD 4TB HDD's. Node is chugging along just fine for personal purposes.
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Roll 12 Feb 2023
It's not required but recommanded. The main difference is that the first synchronization of the blockchain will take much longer (unless you download it separately, but it's not the native way of doing it with Umbrel: https://umbrelinfo.gitlab.io/faq.html#can-i-use-previously-downloaded-blockchain-to-save-time-when-setting-up-my-umbrel-node ).
To give you an idea of the order of magnitude, with an SSD that would take about 3-4 days, with a HDD it's more like 3-4 weeks.
https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/100930/is-an-ssd-required-to-run-a-bitcoin-full-node-and-a-lightning-node
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20 sats \ 0 replies \ @pony 14 Feb 2023
i would use a WD Gold or WD Red (Plus/Pro) for that.
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20 sats \ 0 replies \ @WeAreAllSatoshi 12 Feb 2023
Aside from the initial download, I think the other concern is wearing out the drive. I believe the lifespan of SSDs is much better compared to HDD when a lot of writes happen. Of course, the bulk of the writes happen initially during synchronization, but you’re still going to be writing a lot of data over time. Something to keep in mind, but probably not a deal breaker
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20 sats \ 0 replies \ @random_bitcoiner 13 Feb 2023
An SSD is better, I just upgraded to one a month ago. But I've been running with HDD since 2019.
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @sancristrader 13 Feb 2023
Works fine, using spinning HDD in my server
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @1sats 13 Feb 2023
I have my bitcoind node running on AWS. For the initial blockchain sync, I used gp3 SSD. However, since the blockchain only generates new blocks every ten minutes once fully synced, I switched to a traditional disk drive to reduce costs.
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @blockguard 13 Feb 2023
Not sure but I think it depends...
In my PC I have HDD and Core installed and it works just fine.
In my RasPi4 I have Umbrel and SSD and I'm quite sure this is the requirement also.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Zazon OP 13 Feb 2023
I just want to install a debian os + core + electrum server on a PC, no RaspPi for me
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @BTC_LN 13 Feb 2023
It's just very slow at the beginning, so prepare to wait a week or more to sync, but later it's OK for normal operation.
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