<p>Can you not just put your wallet.dat on the secure usb and when try to load the wallet if usb no unlocked the wallet would fail with error.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-24T14:04:28.590Z
2020-04-24T14:04:28.590Z
Wayne Johnson
<p>You can use symbolic links to your bitcoin data folder or wallet.dat to the usb device location.  You will still have to run bitcoin -rescan when you start the bitcoin client, and you will have to remove the link if you want to run bitcoin without the usb devices.  </p>

<p>Note, however that you do not need to have an offline wallet online at anytime ever unless you are spending the money out of it.  If you are only sending money to it then it can remain offline.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-08-31T00:12:40.110Z
Symbolic links should work for linux, but what about windows?
mbx
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-08-31T00:17:48.497Z
True symbolic links work on linux and OS X. Short cuts on windows are not the same thing. However, you can alias your bitcoin command to provide the "-datadir" flag to point to the USB path.
Joshua Kolden
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-08-31T20:42:46.140Z
Symbolic links work on NTFS as well, since Vista: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_symbolic_link
Domchi
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-08-31T00:05:56.160Z
2011-08-31T00:05:56.160Z
Joshua Kolden
<p>This is a follow up question to "<a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/28/91">How can I keep my wallet secure?</a>" </p>

<p>Is there a portable (at least Win32&amp;64/Linux) to configure the official bitcoin client to use only offline wallets to be inserted in the usb slot for each transaction?</p>

<wallet><backup><client>
How to configure the official bitcoin client to conveniently use offline wallets?
mbx
# How to configure the official bitcoin client to conveniently use offline wallets?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2011-08-30)

This is a follow up question to "[How can I keep my wallet secure?](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/28/91)"

Is there a portable (at least Win32&64/Linux) to configure the official bitcoin client to use only offline wallets to be inserted in the usb slot for each transaction?

**Tags:** wallet, backup, client


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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2011-08-31. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

You can use symbolic links to your bitcoin data folder or wallet.dat to the usb device location. You will still have to run bitcoin -rescan when you start the bitcoin client, and you will have to remove the link if you want to run bitcoin without the usb devices.

Note, however that you do not need to have an offline wallet online at anytime ever unless you are spending the money out of it. If you are only sending money to it then it can remain offline.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Symbolic links should work for linux, but what about windows?  
> **username_2**: True symbolic links work on linux and OS X. Short cuts on windows are not the same thing. However, you can alias your bitcoin command to provide the "-datadir" flag to point to the USB path.  
> **username_3**: Symbolic links work on NTFS as well, since Vista: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_symbolic_link  

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### Answer by username_1 on 2020-04-24. Score: 0

Can you not just put your wallet.dat on the secure usb and when try to load the wallet if usb no unlocked the wallet would fail with error.


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