First GPx download planned for Garmin! Help!

racingt

Hi all,
Garmin 800 bundle ordered last night from Wiggle, and non geeky owner excited!
Heard scare stories of the massively expensive OS micro SD card being wiped by data saved on top of it.
I want to download GPx files, should I remove the sd card to be safe?
Advice appreciated!
Thanks!

andrewjoseph

i've never had that happen to ours, but i didn't bother with the os cards, i use openstreetmaps. plotted our 1400km end to end route on it, saved all the data to it for two weeks and no issues.

i do however, delete old rides off it every few months or so.

smoggysteve

Not sure where you get such scare stories from. You can lock SD cards to make them write protected and even so you cant just write over readable data like on a cassette. SD cards can corruot easy but if you backed up the files to your computer I think it would be recoverable.

freezing77

racingt wrote:

Hi all,
Garmin 800 bundle ordered last night from Wiggle, and non geeky owner excited!
Heard scare stories of the massively expensive OS micro SD card being wiped by data saved on top of it.
I want to download GPx files, should I remove the sd card to be safe?
Advice appreciated!
Thanks!

Never heard of the cards being wiped. If you are so concerned buy a massively expensive £5 micro sd card from ebay and make a copy of your original card. There is nothing particular about the cards from garmin.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/8GB-Micro-SD-SDHC-Memory-Card-For-Mobile-Phone-Camera-Tablet-PC-Computer-/291022783825?pt=UK_AudioTVElectronics_PDAsAccessories_MemoryCards&hash=item43c24f4551

andrewjoseph

freezing77 wrote:

racingt wrote:

Hi all,
Garmin 800 bundle ordered last night from Wiggle, and non geeky owner excited!
Heard scare stories of the massively expensive OS micro SD card being wiped by data saved on top of it.
I want to download GPx files, should I remove the sd card to be safe?
Advice appreciated!
Thanks!

Never heard of the cards being wiped. If you are so concerned buy a massively expensive £5 micro sd card from ebay and make a copy of your original card. There is nothing particular about the cards from garmin.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/8GB-Micro-SD-SDHC-Memory-Card-For-Mobile-Phone-Camera-Tablet-PC-Computer-/291022783825?pt=UK_AudioTVElectronics_PDAsAccessories_MemoryCards&hash=item43c24f4551

except i believe they are locked to the device, so a copy won't work. if the card is corrupt for any reason, you have to buy a new one.

freezing77

Copy will work, the lock file is a text file generated using your 800 or 810 serial number, and as part of the copy process you will copy this file.

See below for the contents of a map lock file, slightly obfuscated.

QxFTFxT5BKGxVRERKNZE4DN9D

apreading

Copy didnt work when I tried it. The preloaded cards have the maps locked to the ESN on the card, not the device - you can plug them into any Garmin or Basecamp.

Best option is to copy the card to a computer, then if you ever have a problem then worst case you can reformat the card and copy the maps back on. There are instructions (somewhere) online about how to do this. If the card dies and doesnt work at all, I think Garmin would replace with a new one.

freezing77

apreading wrote:

Copy didnt work when I tried it. The preloaded cards have the maps locked to the ESN on the card, not the device - you can plug them into any Garmin or Basecamp.

Best option is to copy the card to a computer, then if you ever have a problem then worst case you can reformat the card and copy the maps back on. There are instructions (somewhere) online about how to do this. If the card dies and doesnt work at all, I think Garmin would replace with a new one.

You are correct this is the difference between obtaining the maps on DVD or micro sd.

"In the case of the street maps, if you have two gps units that are not used at the same time you can move the card from one unit to the other. These maps are locked to a specific gps unit if your using a DVD, but in the case of the card the license goes with the card."