62S ... Moving downloaded maps from the unit to SD?

[+Fireofficer]

I am looking at buying a 62S for geocaching and to use for hiking and SAR work. I have found one for sale locally at a good price. It has the Garmin Southeast Topo maps installed on the unit. The owner purchased the topo's from Garmin by doing the download option instead of purchasing them on a micro sd card. When he downloaded he chose the option of downloading to the GPS rather than to a sd card. My question is, Can I copy the southeast topo from the gps to... say a folder on my pc and then place them on a micro sd card instead, to free up space on the gps itself? My concern is attemptng to load pq's to the unit and not being able to because of the memory on the unit already being used up by the topos. I am not sure if this is a concern or if I should leave the southeast topos on the unit and download any pq's to a micro SD and all will work well? If anyone has a 62s and can help me out here I would certainly appreciate it.

[+Fireofficer]

Thanks for the quick reply. I was just concerned that if I didn't move the topos to the card I wouldn't be able to download my pq's to the gps. I could be wrong here but from what I am understanding you want to put the pq's on the unit and not the card? The owner said that the topos just fit on the unit so he downloaded to the gps vs the sd card. As for formatting the sd to fat32, Is that an option that will pop up when I put the card in a card reader and go to format? Thanks for the help.

[+dbmet]

I put my PQ's on my sd card with no problems on my 62s.

D

 

quote name='Fireofficer' timestamp='1328804153' post='4968514']

I am looking at buying a 62S for geocaching and to use for hiking and SAR work. I have found one for sale locally at a good price. It has the Garmin Southeast Topo maps installed on the unit. The owner purchased the topo's from Garmin by doing the download option instead of purchasing them on a micro sd card. When he downloaded he chose the option of downloading to the GPS rather than to a sd card. My question is, Can I copy the southeast topo from the gps to... say a folder on my pc and then place them on a micro sd card instead, to free up space on the gps itself? My concern is attemptng to load pq's to the unit and not being able to because of the memory on the unit already being used up by the topos. I am not sure if this is a concern or if I should leave the southeast topos on the unit and download any pq's to a micro SD and all will work well? If anyone has a 62s and can help me out here I would certainly appreciate it.

[+Fireofficer]

OK Thanks D, I just wasn't sure if I needed to try and move the topos to the sd to free up room on the unit to send the pq's to. I only have an old etrex so I look forward to getting the 62S. After researching a lot I came down to the 62S or the Oregon 450. Do you use your 62S for anything besides geocaching? I have a nuvi 1450 in my truck for on road to get me to the area and plan to use the 62S for the actual caching and for hiking and SAR work. Thanks for your reply.

[+Lil Devil]

While I believe that the maps would work regardless of where they are, there is a simple test: Move them and see if it works. If not, move them back. The maps are just a file within the file system. Easy to move around at will.

 

Edit to add you can even copy the maps to your computer as a backup. Sure, they won't work on your computer. But if you somehow wipe out the copy on your GPS, you could then copy from your backup and be back in business.

Edited February 9, 2012 by Lil Devil

[seldom_sn]

I am looking at buying a 62S for geocaching and to use for hiking and SAR work. I have found one for sale locally at a good price. It has the Garmin Southeast Topo maps installed on the unit. The owner purchased the topo's from Garmin by doing the download option instead of purchasing them on a micro sd card. When he downloaded he chose the option of downloading to the GPS rather than to a sd card. My question is, Can I copy the southeast topo from the gps to... say a folder on my pc and then place them on a micro sd card instead, to free up space on the gps itself? My concern is attemptng to load pq's to the unit and not being able to because of the memory on the unit already being used up by the topos. I am not sure if this is a concern or if I should leave the southeast topos on the unit and download any pq's to a micro SD and all will work well? If anyone has a 62s and can help me out here I would certainly appreciate it.

You should check Garmin's site for limitations on downloaded maps. I think this is the link:

 

http://iqc.garmin.com/eCustomer/KODSelfService/request.do?create=kb:garmin&view%28%29=c{16315fb0-39b2-11de-5dd5-000000000000}

 

If so, it's unlocked to the 62. Don't know how it would behave if moved to your hard drive.

Edited February 9, 2012 by seldom_sn

[+Fireofficer]

Lil Devil, Thanks for the ideas. If nothing else I could make a copy of the file for backup as you suggested.

 

Seldom Sn, Thanks for the link, I had read it before. The download is unlocked to the device it seems, so that it can only be used with the one device it is downloaded to. That's not an issue for me anyway. Apparently I can use basecamp with the downloaded version, which is a good thing.

 

I was mainly concerned with the maps being already installed to the device and was afraid there might not be enough space left to send my pq's to and wasn't sure if I could just leave the maps on the device and send the pq's to the card instead. This is a great site and I have already learned a lot while doing research for my purchase decision. Lots of good people on here that seem always willing to help out. I really appreciate everyones replies. Thanks again.

[+dbmet]

I have used it to get me to some places that are near the cache.. I loaded a openstreet routeable map to my sd card as well. I have an iphone so I use that too...Lol..

d

 

quote name='Fireofficer' timestamp='1328814343' post='4968647']

OK Thanks D, I just wasn't sure if I needed to try and move the topos to the sd to free up room on the unit to send the pq's to. I only have an old etrex so I look forward to getting the 62S. After researching a lot I came down to the 62S or the Oregon 450. Do you use your 62S for anything besides geocaching? I have a nuvi 1450 in my truck for on road to get me to the area and plan to use the 62S for the actual caching and for hiking and SAR work. Thanks for your reply.

[seldom_sn]

Since it's locked to the device, the only other question is whether it's copy protected, like the pre-loaded cards are. I can't see a risk free way to check that, since if you copy to a card, you'll need to erase it from the GPSr to see if the card has a useable map on it. If it's copy protected you'll be out of luck. If you can save caches to a card, I'd leave the Topo in internal memory (or call Garmin), and just add another 4GB of caches and maps to say an 8 or 16 GB card. You can use the space above 4GB for Birdseye imagery.

[+Red90]

Since it's locked to the device, the only other question is whether it's copy protected......

 

It is not possible to do that with a map that has been download to the internal memory. You can move it to a card. It will be fine.

[+Fireofficer]

Thanks for the replies guys, I am going to pick it up in the morning. Just didn't want to mess anything up.

[+Fireofficer]

OK sus, will do thanks.

[+myotis]

You wanted to move it to the card to make room for PQs on the device. However, you should place your PQs on the card, not internal memory. So you really don't have a problem with the map on the card. PQs work the same if they are on the device or the card. However, if they are on the card and there is an issue with them, you can pull the card and start up the GPS. There can be problems with PQs stopping the GPS from starting up. This is much easier to deal with if they are on the car. Remove the card and GPS starts up. If there is a problem with the PQs not loading correctly and you are away from your computer, you can pull the card, start the GPS, shut down the GPS reinsert the card, and then restart the GPS. There are no advantages to having the PQs on the GPS instead of the card.

[+Red90]

However, you should place your PQs on the card, not internal memory. So you really don't have a problem with the map on the card. PQs work the same if they are on the device or the card..

 

Unfortunately this is not the case with the "new" models, 62/78/Montana. There have been a lot of reported problems with GPX files on a card a Garmin has officially stated that they should be kept on internal memory....

[+dbmet]

So what happens if you load a bad gpx file to the internal memory and can't get your gps into mass storage mode? Them what do you do?