Advice on Loading Maps onto 2gb SD

[scheister]

Hello All,

 

I have a GpsMap 76Csx and recently purchased a Kingston 2gb micro SD card with reader. I loaded CityNav NA and NP East Topo; it took a long time. I am planning a trip to CO later this summer and am interested in loading a few NP West Topo maps onto the card. If I remember correctly a member was thoughtful enough to post a brief tutorial on this site about loading maps using a reader to avoid losing maps already on the card, but I cannot find it. Would someone please provide a link to this tutorial or provide advice on how to do this?? Thanks.

[jfabes]

I remember reading that somewhere too and I did a search and couldnt find it.

[+briansnat]

As far as I know there is no way to load new maps without erasing the old ones.

 

I'll move this the the appropriate forum where perhaps some of the experts who lurk there can correct me and help you out.

[+Miragee]

I don't have one of the 'x' version GPSrs, but from reading here, I understand if your card reader is USB 2.0, the transfer of all the maps takes a lot less time than using the USB cable to the GPSr.

 

As far as I know, uploading new maps always erases the previous mapset . . . so, I guess, if you have a large card, you should just load everything you ever think you might need, the first time.

[+poohstickz]

Using MapSource you're going to erase the existing set. That's what it's supposed to do.

 

So, what you could do is to speed up the transfer by putting the device in USB mode, or copy directly via a card reader.

 

Or, if you don't want to recreate the maps, you can create the mapsets once, store them on a hard drive then copy them to the storage card as needed using one of the higher speed methods above.

 

Or, as a version of the above, you can create multiple mapsets, store then all on the SD card under different names, renaming them to the garmin mapset as needed.

 

Or, you could splurge and buy a second 512MB card for usually less than 12 dollars shipped or a 1 GB for in the region of 15 dollars all-in, and have different cards for different regions. Personally, that's what I do for dealing with different continents and the like. Much will depend on how often you need to do this and how much your time is worth to you. Google is remarkable efficient for finding good prices on SD cards, as is that well-known auction site, as is the place that made its name selling books online and so on.

 

If this is a one-off thing, then the copy or rename methods are probably your best bet.

Edited June 28, 2007 by poohstickz

[scheister]

Using MapSource you're going to erase the existing set. That's what it's supposed to do.

 

So, what you could do is to speed up the transfer by putting the device in USB mode, or copy directly via a card reader.

 

Or, if you don't want to recreate the maps, you can create the mapsets once, store them on a hard drive then copy them to the storage card as needed using one of the higher speed methods above.

 

Or, as a version of the above, you can create multiple mapsets, store then all on the SD card under different names, renaming them to the garmin mapset as needed.

 

Or, you could splurge and buy a second 512MB card for usually less than 12 dollars shipped or a 1 GB for in the region of 15 dollars all-in, and have different cards for different regions. Personally, that's what I do for dealing with different continents and the like. Much will depend on how often you need to do this and how much your time is worth to you. Google is remarkable efficient for finding good prices on SD cards, as is that well-known auction site, as is the place that made its name selling books online and so on.

 

If this is a one-off thing, then the copy or rename methods are probably your best bet.

 

Thanks to all of you for the advice, especially poohstickz for all the different "or" options. Unfortunately I am not quite up to speed with storing the mapsets to the SD card under different names then renaming them to the Garmin mapset as needed. What format do they need to be saved in? I did not see an .img option. Since I do not have the NP Topo West disk yet I have time to explore the options, learn some more, and hope that someone might post a solution. I will keep checking back and searching.

[GeoBobC]

Storing and renaming multiple map sets should work, but why bother? If you have room to store multiple mapsets, you have room to store one large mapset that includes all the maps you need. Load it once and forget it.

[+Thrak]

Here is the text of a reply from Miragee when I inquired about loading both City Select and TOPO maps. It might help you with your issue:

 

When you get the Topo maps, first, copy the data on the three CDs to your harddrive and do the installation from that location. Then you won't have to insert the CDs when you want to use the Topo maps on your computer. Also, make sure you download the Patch from the Garmin site and install that.

 

Then, once the maps are installed, there is a "drop down" menu in Mapsource. You choose all the map segments you want from the City Navigator maps, then you select Topo from the list. Now you select all the segments you want from those maps.

 

After that you send the maps to your GPSr. If you aren't using a card reader, and depending on how many maps you are sending, this can take a long time.