My C: drive in my WINDOWS PC is almost full. How can I change both geth and Mist path to relocate my blockchain files?

Question

I read here somewhere that I have to execute geth --datadir "NEW PATH". But this solution:

1) Doesn't work in a permanent way for me (it will actually point geth in that direction but if I after execute geth -help it will show the old path).

2) Will not update the Mist (or Ethereum Wallet) path. Every time I execute it will try to download the entire blockchain again in the old path.

I know this has been treated before here, but couldn't find an answer for this particular situation. Thanks in advance.

EDIT: This question is Windows specific, and hasn´t been answered before

Answer 1

You'll need to create a symbolic link from the folder where Mist is looking for the chaindata to the folder where you are storing the chaindata (e.g., on an external drive). You can make a symbolic link with the MKLINK command in Windows, there's a good primer on the matter here: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/?PageSpeed=noscript (A symbolic link is not the same as a Windows shortcut, though it functions similarly)

Here are directions to do this in Windows Vista, 7, 8 or 10: First, open command prompt in Windows with administrator privileges, then enter:

mklink /J folder_path_that_Mist_looks_at folder_path_to_your_desired_location

In my case with Win8 this command looks something like this: mklink /J C:\User\Username\AppData\Roaming\Ethereum D:\Etherdata\Ethereum (I moved my whole Etherdata folder, not just the chaindata folder).

The /J indicates that you're linking a folder not a file. You do not need to navigate to a particular folder in command to do this.

(Thanks to @BokkyPooBah for his guidance on this here)

Answer 2

Now you can use --node-datadir="path/to/datadir" option to specify your data directory for mist and ethereum wallet. I've tried this on Windows, I don't yet know if it has been implemented for Linux/Mac too or not.

Answer 3

I am using this code for shortcut:

"F:\Ethereum-Wallet\Ethereum Wallet.exe" --node-datadir="D:/Ethereum/data"

Program starting download blockchain data to new path.

Answer 4

This was killing me but our prayers have been answered. The new Mist and Eth Wallet releases offer an installer package for both. Dl the one you want and the first dir prompt is for the files to be installed, the second is for the data (blockchain) location. Boom Easy Peasy! just be sure to get the files from the correct github location. Rumor has it someone posted a bogus file that appears to be a wallet but actually allows them to remote in and get your ETH.