Cloning/backing up to a Macintosh

 

I did a search here for these terms: Back up and Backing up, but got no hits that apply to backing up my GPS on a Macintosh.

I clone my Mac once a week to an external HD. That way, if anything goes wrong, I start up from that HD and my OS looks exactly as it did a/o the time I made the clone.

Any of you folks who use Macs know how I could clone my Nuvi 650? I read about all the things we can do to customize our units here (delete voices you don't use, upload POI, change the "Recalculating" alert to say something else, etc.), but before tinkering around with the guts of the unit, I want to clone it first.

I did a similar search on the Garmin site but found nothing there. It's like they don't want you to know how to back up your unit.

Many thanks,
Speed3

BTW, with the Red Light and Speed Camera POIs loaded, and living in the WDC area, the one with the second highest listing among (Areas with the most speed cameras), I have been stunned by how often my unit alerts me to their presence. These cameras must be a real money maker for the local governments.

One bunch of thieves in a very upscale neighborhood which must earn a stunning amount of revenue from real estate taxes, nonetheless put these cameras up along a six-lane wide, divided-island road running through their community then slapped a ridiculously low speed limit on that road. The local paper carries complaints about that speed trap all the time and still it goes on.

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Nuvi 3790T w. Lifetime Maps/Macintosh OS Lion/iPhone 4/iPad 1

~

When I hook my 750 to my Mac, it looks just like an external drive on the Mac Desktop - I do the same with that as I do my Mac HD for backing-up.

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*Keith* MacBook Pro *wifi iPad(2012) w/BadElf GPS & iPhone6 + Navigon*

Cloning using a Mac

I connect my Nuvi to the mac and open Disk Utility (usually found in the Utilities folder).

Select the Nuvi, then click on New Image near the top of the window.

This will create a (compressed) image file of your Nuvi disk.

Since the 660 and 680 are USB 1.1 devices, this takes a while... I only do complete volume backups when I'm going to do some kind of upgrade or other major operation. For POI content and the like, I can rebuild those from files on the Mac.

Cheers--

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Nuvi 2460, 680, DATUM Tymserve 2100, Trimble Thunderbolt, Ham radio, Macintosh, Linux, Windows

You can just drag and drop

I just created a folder named NuviBackup in my Documents folder, plugged in the nuvi and the device mounts on the desktop, I then dragged all the files into file to the NuviBackup folder. Simple and effective.

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Brent - DriveLuxe 51 LMT-S

+1

Exact same way I backup my Nuvi and Zumo.

brentrn wrote:

I just created a folder named NuviBackup in my Documents folder, plugged in the nuvi and the device mounts on the desktop, I then dragged all the files into file to the NuviBackup folder. Simple and effective.

Re - Cloning/backing up to a Macintosh

Here is what concerns me about the drag and drop method.

If, for instance, you are cloning your Mac's HD, you can't just drag and drop the icon of your internal HD to, for example, an external HD because if you do so, not everything gets copied to the external HD. You have to clone with Disk Utility, or SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. This way, everything gets copied over.

Have you folks ever seen a post here where, after backing up a GPS in a way that works, the GPS unit goes wonky and someone has had to actually erase the GPS and restore it to working order by copying the backup back to the GPS? And no, I am /not/ offering to be the guinea pig for that experiment!

Also, examining the contents of the GPS files for the first time, I see there is a .pdf doc in there: the Nuvi Owner's Manual.

Uh, what's that for? There is no way to access it via the GPS unit's interface and read it is there? You'd need to connect the GPS to a HD, open the files, and then read it.

Thanks so much for the feedback,

Speed3

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Nuvi 3790T w. Lifetime Maps/Macintosh OS Lion/iPhone 4/iPad 1

I've done it on my TomTom

Speed3 wrote:

Have you folks ever seen a post here where, after backing up a GPS in a way that works, the GPS unit goes wonky and someone has had to actually erase the GPS and restore it to working order by copying the backup back to the GPS? And no, I am /not/ offering to be the guinea pig for that experiment!

TomTom's directions to back-up & restore with a Mac are to use the system Disk Utility. And everything went well with the restore.

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*Keith* MacBook Pro *wifi iPad(2012) w/BadElf GPS & iPhone6 + Navigon*

Mac Backup

As you know, Time Machine backs up the Mac all the time. I had a problem download from Mac's site that froze my computer. Simple reinstall with TM backup.
Same with the Nuvi 780. Just copy the entire folder when you mount the Nuvi on the desk top. It’s complete. I also had back up to my 360 and 660. My 660 had a major attack, and while on the phone with Garmin, they were going to send me a disc with the necessary files to get it back working. Wala1 since I had the backup, he told me which file(s) to drop into Nuvi and in no time it was back, good as new.
Back ups are worth the time.

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John Every Day Above Ground is a Good Day! Nuvi 360,660 and 780

Disk Utility clearly the way to clone the unit

I checked with some of the gurus on one of the Mac Lists to which I belong, just to be double sure, and they agreed 100% with you folks here who recommend using Apple's Disk Utility for this job:

In Disk Utility, select the device you want to copy.
Then File > New > Disk Image from . Choose where you wan to save it to and you'll get a disk image with the same format as the original.

Worked perfectly for me.

Thanks a lot, guys.

Speed3

No takers on my query as to why there is a .pdf Owner's Manual on the Nuvi 650???

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Nuvi 3790T w. Lifetime Maps/Macintosh OS Lion/iPhone 4/iPad 1

Cloning is probably best & A question

I have to agree that cloning is probably best. When I have used the backup I first let the Garmin firmware update be installed and then replaced the file with my favorites and the POI folders. This has worked fine for me. The only time I have needed the backup was when I was screwing around the the firmware and mucked things up. A clone would be good for a full restore.

Another question:
Would a clone be better than an original? Would creating a clone and replacing it back into the GPS essentially defragment the device?

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Brent - DriveLuxe 51 LMT-S

Manual

Speed3 wrote:

Speed3

No takers on my query as to why there is a .pdf Owner's Manual on the Nuvi 650???

There was no owners manual at least for my 660 but one was listed as posted on the Garmin site so I downloaded it and printed it. Now I have an owners manual. That's the best answer I can come up with.

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NUVI 660, Late 2012 iMac, Macbook 2.1 Fall 2008, iPhone6 , Nuvi 3790, iPad2

Screen Shot of My Nuvi 650

http://a4.s3.p.quickshareit.com/files/nuvi6507a1c4.jpg

At the above URL is a screen shot of the contents of my Nuvi 650. You can see that the bottom entry is a 1.8 MB Nuvi Owner's Manual.

I guess, in a way, it's nice to have because if you remember to take your Nuvi USB cord with you when you travel, you always have access to your manual should you need it.

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Nuvi 3790T w. Lifetime Maps/Macintosh OS Lion/iPhone 4/iPad 1

Another suggestion

I use a program called ChronoSync http://www.econtechnologies.com/

It's simple to use & makes incremental back-ups. Translation, it only backs up items that have changed since the last time you ran a back-up. This greatly reduces the time necessary to keep everything up to date. It allows you to simply set it up to back-up the entire drive or only selected files. For my Garmin, I just back-up the whole thing which takes only a few seconds. The first time you run ChronoSync, it takes quite a bit longer as it is copying the entire contents of the drive.

I began using this program years ago to keep my MacBook Pro synced with my G5 & for routine back-ups (prior to Time Machine).

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Not lost anymore. Well, not as it pertains to driving anyway. -Garmin Nuvi 765t, 56 unt Mac user.

Another benefit to disk util...

Another benefit to using disk util to make a disk image is that it creates a compressed image, taking up less space on your hard disk than if you did a drag and drop of the files. And since everything is in a single disk image file (dmg), you can move the whole thing around easier.

cheers--

bob

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Nuvi 2460, 680, DATUM Tymserve 2100, Trimble Thunderbolt, Ham radio, Macintosh, Linux, Windows

Mini Cooper - off topic

Which Mini do you have and are you happy with it? I almost got one a year ago but settled on a MazdaSpeed 3 instead.

Thanks.

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Nuvi 3790T w. Lifetime Maps/Macintosh OS Lion/iPhone 4/iPad 1

It never entered my mind

It never entered my mind that I needed to backup my Nuvi 765. If there is an OS problem can't that be remedied with Garmin Web Updater and aren't my personal items like POI's and routes backed up to Garmin RoadTrip?

I'll admit to using Disk Utility to make a disc image of my Nuvi even before I got an answer here though. smile

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If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else. - Yogi Berra

Mini Cooper S

2008 Mini Cooper S -- about as much fun as you can have with your pants on!

While it has a back seat, it's a two person car unless your rear seat passenger has detachable legs (or likes to fold up or sit sideways like my dancer daughter).

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Nuvi 2460, 680, DATUM Tymserve 2100, Trimble Thunderbolt, Ham radio, Macintosh, Linux, Windows

Mini Cooper & Mazdaspeed 3

I drove both of them and it was a tough choice.

They both handled very well and, with the turbo version of the Mini, had /lots/ of power.

What led me toward the Mazda was four doors and a genuine rear seat which we needed.

I simply /love/ getting into this thing and driving anywhere but in heavy traffic!!

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Nuvi 3790T w. Lifetime Maps/Macintosh OS Lion/iPhone 4/iPad 1

Fastest way to clone GPS on a Mac

Speed3 wrote:

I checked with some of the gurus on one of the Mac Lists to which I belong, just to be double sure, and they agreed 100% with you folks here who recommend using Apple's Disk Utility for this job:

In Disk Utility, select the device you want to copy.
Then File > New > Disk Image from . Choose where you want to save it to and you'll get a disk image with the same format as the original.

I found an even faster way to create a disk image of the GPS on a Mac. Just drag the image of the mounted GPS from the desktop to the icon of the Disk Utility application.

You will be asked to give the new .dmg file a name and location.

If you first drag the icon of Disk Utility to the Dock the next clone will be even simpler. You will only need to drag your GPS image to the dock icon to begin the process.

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Brent - DriveLuxe 51 LMT-S

Fantastic!

You've got it. Easy as pie that way. Thanks for the tips, Brent.

What's the easiest way for folks dealing with PCs vice Macs?

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Nuvi 3790T w. Lifetime Maps/Macintosh OS Lion/iPhone 4/iPad 1

Please clarify

[quote=Speed3What's the easiest way for folks dealing with PCs vice Macs?

I am not sure what you are asking. Could you clarify?

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Brent - DriveLuxe 51 LMT-S

Cloning your GPS on a PC

I often encourage my PC-using pals (I use a Mac) to make a clone of their GPS before they hack into its innards and begin changing things.

Per this thread, I now believe I know the best way to do so on my Mac, but do not know how to advise these friends how to do so on a PC.

Thanks.

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Nuvi 3790T w. Lifetime Maps/Macintosh OS Lion/iPhone 4/iPad 1

Backup to Windows PC

Speed3 wrote:

I often encourage my PC-using pals (I use a Mac) to make a clone of their GPS.....I now believe I know the best way to do so on my Mac, but do not know how to advise these friends how to do so on a PC.

Searching the threads it seems like just duplicating the contents to a folder on the PC is the preferred method. This does create problems with file dates.

I did find this utility for creating a Windows image file:
http://www.free-news-release.com/IMG-file-reader---MagicISO-...

If it works that may be the best solution for Windows users (short of getting a Mac and making their lives easier).

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Brent - DriveLuxe 51 LMT-S

important note about volume cloning

Hi there,

I did the same thing and cloned the volume to a disk image and used the disc burning utility Roxio Toast to do so. One thing to note and be careful of is Toast errored and informed me that there were partitions it couldn't image when I tried to use the "Disc Copy" function. I had to use the "Image File" function instead.

Therefore, I believe there are some hidden system/boot-type partitions on the nuvi that would be impossible to recover if somehow the entire unit's memory was blanked.

I think cloning the volume with disk utility or similar is the ideal way as it'll be sure to grab any invisible files, etc., but I cannot say for certain that it's getting a low level copy of the entire system.

I have recovered from an image

I had a need to recover from an image as was successful. Perhaps the lowest level stuff is in ROM.

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Brent - DriveLuxe 51 LMT-S

Cloning

SuperDuper is another clone utility that also has the ability to make a disk image. I've used it for years for auto backups every evening both at work and home. It sounds like drag and drop to the disk utility is the fastest though for the Nuvi.

Back up on Mac

What Mac OS are you running? After installing the TomTom Desktop on my Dual G4 desktop running 10.4 (and then 10.5) and, loading it onto my MacBook Pro (10.5) back ups were easy (a few clicks at most).
Now that TomTom has partnered with Apple and will be available on the iPhone, it should be even easier.
I still haven't heard pricing and other details re: TomTom App on the iPhone. How much is the docking cradle going to cost?