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Garmin Oregon 450 - Missing Internal Memory


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Hi!

 

I've deleted accidentally the partition of the internal memory on a Garmin Oregon 450. On my eTrex 30 this would be a routine task. I've reformatted the internal memory of my eTrex 30 without problems, BUT in this case (in the case of Oregon 450) I cannot resolve the situation.

 

1) When I force the USB storage mode on Oregon 450 (pressing the power button 30 seconds), every partitioning program (on Windows and on Linux as well) show me that I have 1.8 GB storage space, BUT(!) I remember very well, that the original, deleted partition was only 850-900 MB.

 

2) If I create a partition of 1.8 GB OR 800 MB, and I format that partition with FAT32 filesystem, the Oregon 450 doesn't recognize that partition, so doesn't recognize a workable internal memory.

 

This is a desperate situation, as the Oregon is not working properly anymore, not seeing the internal memory.

 

As I've mentioned: this was a routin on eTrex 20/30, but with oregon 450 I cannot find a solution. (And I don't understand why is there 1.8 GB storage capacity…)

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Unless you are in machine language, you cannot touch the internal memory. If you succeeded it would be the first time we ever hear about this.

 

Maybe (but I'm complete in the dark here!!!) you have a similar problem with you Linux, like can happen with an Apple computer 'eating' memory from the Gps and have to empty the wastepaper basket on the computer with the Gps connected (called differently on an Apple)

Edited by splashy
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Internal memory = Built-in memory (= 850 MB). This was a 850-900 MB partition, BUT every partitioning software shows 1.8 GB capacity. So this was a 850-900 MB partition on a 1.8 GB capacity device. It is not uncommon to access the built-in memory. For example: http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=138589 . But unfortunately I cannot follow the solution/instruction from that topic, because in my case the partition itself was deleted (not simply formatted). I can create partition(s) (and format it/them), but the Oregon doesn't recognize it/them as built-in memory, although when I connect it to the computer in storage mode, I can see the partition, I can write on it the backed up files and folders etc. (Sorry for my English.)

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I once accidentally deleted the partition on an USB drive. Windows disk management was unable to reinstate it rendering it useless.

I think I ended up used fdisk on windows 95 command prompt from virtualbox (!) to do the same thing which strangely enough worked...

 

Do you see the internal drive in windows disk management - without the partitions - or is it completely gone?

Edited by tr_s
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Do you see the internal drive in windows disk management - without the partitions - or is it completely gone?

 

Hi :)

 

I can see the internal drive (without the partitions) on Windows with MiniTool Partition Wizard, or on Linux with Gparted. I can even create partion(s) on the internal drive with MiniTool Partition Wizard (Windows) or Gparted (Linux) or fdisk (Linux command line program). Than I can write files to the created partition(s). BUT only the Oregon 450 doesn't see the drive.

 

Now!: I've checked an other Garmin device (an eTrex 30), and I found that the internal storage uses a non-conventional partition layout. If you create a partition on a (flash) drive with fdisk or other partitioning software, in each case the first partition is preceded by 2048 unallocated physical sectors. In other words: the first physical sector of the first partition is = 2048. BUT(!) I found that on the internal drive of the eTrex 30 the the first physical sector is = 0 (zero), no 2048. So the (first) partition is preceded by 0 unallocated physical sector. Probably this is the key of the problem. But I cannot make a such partition. Fdisk (and other partitioning softwares) forces 2048 unallocated sectors at the beginning of the drive.

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Problem solved :)

 

So the Garmins' internal device has a non-conventional partion-„table”. More exactly: there is no partition table: the (fat32-formated) partition starts with the 0 sector of the device, without the 2048 reserved first sectors. With Linux terminology: on the device sdd there is no sdd1 partition: you must format the entire sdd itself. So I formatted it under Linux with this command:

 

mkfs.vfat -I /dev/sdd

 

(No sdd1! The „-I” switch forces the non-convencional usage for sdd, without numerical index.)

 

Now: the great surprise:

With this method I've just doubled the capacitiy of the internal storage from 850 MB to 1.8 GB :D

Edited by tritone123
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Normally you should have a visible and a non visible part, are you able now to run the basic software?

If needed I have a complete Or 550 backup for you.

Thank you for your kind helpfulness (550 backup). The oregon 450 now works perfectly, without deficiencies :)

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Now: the great surprise:

With this method I've just doubled the capacitiy of the internal storage from 850 MB to 1.8 GB :D

 

Hah! Interesting.

 

Have you verified the whole space is writable?

 

Wouldn't surprise me if this is the case. Many manufacturers restrict functionality between models by software only.

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Have you verified the whole space is writable? Wouldn't surprise me if this is the case. Many manufacturers restrict functionality between models by software only.

 

Yes, It's perfectly writable, 1.8 GB. My friend recently bought this product. Certainly is from the last x50 production series (before the Oregon 6xx debut). Maybe they ran out of the older, smaller-capacity memory module, which was replaced with the larger one from the eTrex 20/30.

Edited by tritone123
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Hi there,

since I have this problem right now: Didn't figure out how to do this thing on a Macs terminal with diskutil or newfs_msdos (set the offset to 0) but I found that I can compile mkfs.vfat for the Mac.

Get the source from here and do the common tasks (cd to the extracted souce, then enter ./configure && make && make install).

Hope is is useful for somebody else...

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