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How to get a Garmin SD chip to show as a drive on your computer . . .


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Posted (edited)

Some questions regarding on how to see Garmin's microSD chip or SD chip as a drive (storage device) in your "My Computer" window have popped up . . .

 

For some newer Garmins with a storage disk, special steps are required to actually see a "drive" in "My Computer". Once you complete the following steps you will see your Garmin chip assigned as a drive.

 

Following are some screen shots from my Garmin Legend CX for creating a drive reference. Other Garmin units will likely have a similar process for "showing" the storage chip as a drive.

 

First make sure that you have the proper USB drivers as supplied by Garmin on their website. The installation of these drivers won't automatically create a "drive" reference when your unit is hooked up via your USB cable, but they are required.

 

With your USB cable connected to your Garmin and the power on, you must do the following:

 

1) Go to setup:

1-setup.jpg

 

2)Then to interface:

2-interface.jpg

 

3)Then you will see the Connected Screen. PRESS ENTER on you toggle switch to activate!

3b.jpg

 

4)You will then see this screen on your GPS:

4-1.jpg

 

And if all is working correctly, your system will indicate that a drive has been found.

 

At that point you should see your Garmin chip in your "My Computer" panel as a drive.

 

From there you can view files on your chip and apply functions such as copy, paste, delete, etc.

 

Hope this helps anyone new to Garmin units with microSD or SD storage chips . . .

 

Peter

Edited by Petermgr
Posted

I just go to interface>mass storage, and it engages the card.

 

To switch back to the garmin unit itself, (off the card), I just hit the power off button on the gps, and it disengages the Mass storage and restarts the gps connection wit the PC.

Posted

Or just have a card reader and an SD adapter, and use it just like any other USB memory stick. My laptop has an SD slot, so no reader is necessary, but I do have a Lexar Jumpdrive for use with computers without a slot. Most printers now have SD slots, and these also work as card readers, albeit slow ones.

Posted

Well, I've been searching around the forums for a good half hour and can't the answer to a question I just ran into and it kinda fits with this one so...

 

I seem to have too many geocaching waypoints loaded onto my CSx. I have a 2 gig SD card that I can now access as a drive, but can I load add'l waypoints onto it? If so, do I just drag and drop the .gpx files? Will they still show up in the GPS unit just like if they were stored on internal memory?

 

The fact that I can't find where anybody else has posted this question makes me think it's painfully obvious, so thanks in advance for the help :D

Posted

Nope, the Garmin will NOT read a GPX file at all.

You may use the free download POI Loader (garmin site), and use some program ( a macro in GSAK works great for this) to make "custom points of interest". save them to the chip, and navigate to them. I have 5000 or so caches + hints, + parking and other waypoints (8000 total).

Posted

You may use the free download POI Loader (garmin site), and use some program ( a macro in GSAK works great for this) to make "custom points of interest"

 

I swear the first time I did this I got the points to come in as Geocaches on the Garmin, but now they come in as "custom points of interest" as you say. Any idea if there's a way to force them into the Find->Geocache list instead? Thanks.

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