[solved] accidentally formatted my whole Garmin nuvi 350 GPS!!!!

You should contact Garmin customer support and they should be able to help you restore the files.

But they told me that I would have to pay a fee to repair it, and he seems pretty clueless anyhow.

help but not sure.

http://www.gawisp.com/perry/nuvi/

Scroll down to the Nuvi350 files

You can also try a program like Recuva to see if you can extract the files. I would try it first before doing anything else, as you don't want to overwrite the drive.

Google Piriform.

http://www.piriform.com/recuva to restore your files. As long as you haven't written anything to the internal memory, you should be able to restore the system.

But it was not successful at recovering any data. Do you know anyone here with a nuvi 350 that could help me?

I've recovered tons of stuff off old drives, and SD cards.

Did you format the drive with a 7 pass NSA like CCleaner?

As in left clicked on the drive, and selected format.

Why did you format it???

I was going to format my Sd card of pictures, but I accidentally format my GPS in a hurry, which was the icon right next to to the SD card.

Sounds like you might be in our age range!!
Gray hair and absent minded....

When I had problems with my Garmin I emailed them. I find I can get a much better answer from them and did not have to pay for something that the phone support wanted me to pay for.

Try emailing Garmin and tell them just how you did it and maybe you will get a support person who was like the great one I had.

Now I'll just have to wait, funny comment though xD

PM sent...

Tell them what happened. Hopefully you registered your Nuvi 350 with Garmin. They can take control of your computer and download the necessary files to your Nuvi as long as you have proof of purchase of your Nuvi.

I just did the same thing

I'm wondering how you happened to format the 350's storage drive yet don't need the map .img file. Wouldn't that file be gone as well?

I'll repurchase the map myself, rather than leeching it off of someone else's purchase.

can't you login to mygarmin and download the latest map you have licensed for your nuvi? you can also use the updater to get back the voices.

I have the file you need, I didn't pay for it either

I did the same thing you did last night too, don't pay I can help you if its not too late.

Updater is for the maps. It does not reinstall GPSr OS. (or that has been my experience)

How long have you owned your 350GPS?

Where did you buy it?

How much did you pay?

Was the GPS locked before you formatted it?

Did you register it with Garmin?

How much did Garmin say they would charge you to help you restore the files?

These answers would help us help you.

Miss Poi ... some of these new posters asking to or willing to exchange copyrighted files via pm make me nervous. I would hate to see this site disintegrate into a bandit gps site?

That isn't possible anyway (the leeching part), as the preinstalled maps on the Nuvi will only work on the device they were originally placed on. You'll have to buy new maps which makes me wonder if you shouldn't just send the GPS back to Garmin and let them restore it. I think I saw that they charge $99 while new maps are $70 or $80. Seems like you've gone through $10 or $20 of aggravation so far and still don't have a working 350.

I had exactly the same feeling. Certainly it is OK for someone to ask for help in restoring accidently deleted files (either themself or with help from Garmin). However, asking for one of our members to put files into something like "Dropbox" is a copyright violation.

POI Factory does not support this sort of behavior. Please be respectful of other peoples Copyright laws.

Miss POI

That you also deleted the software necessary to PUT files back on the internal drive. Even if you could get all the files, they won't do you any good as you can't PUT them back on your device now......as it is deaf and dumb.

Sending it to Garmin is likely your only choice.

P.S. In the future do NOT format your SD card while it is IN YOUR GARMIN !!

send the thing in. Let Garmin do it...or better yet, get another 350. In San Diego Craigslist you can pick them up for $40-$50.00,it will cost more than that to send it to Garmin with repair costs and postage. Make it easy on yourself.

Just checked...a 360 is $60.00!

I also had a funny feeling when I saw someone was going to help with something that should come from Garmin.

I did notice that the original poster and the poster who said not to pay but to get this information from them only belonged to this site for less than a day.

They don't realise how great a site this is and it will stay that way with all the great people here.

Hopefully they will think twice before accepting the offer to help with files that should come from Garmin.

Ouch...expensive lesson - learn to format drives in a very DELIBERATE and CAREFUL manner.

Carelessness costs.

Wrong. If his computer can "see" the garmin once its plugged in he can most definitely put the files back. The Garmin has two partitions. The actual system files are on a hidden partition you can't access.

Can't argue with that, as I am not a Garmin expert.
Other models don't work that way, however, and an accidental format renders them a "brick".

Someone offered to help me. I hope this will fix my gps xD

This is one of the reasons why you should save ALL your Garmin files to your computer FIRST before doing anything else with the gps. Some of us here have done that and its saved us a lot of time and trouble.

Nuvi1300WTGPS

I got my nuvi 350 to work again Special thanks to
tghowe

First thing I did when I got my units is to make a DVD with all the original files in them. That way I can play with them without fear of messing something up.

I have used my backup once to restore a file I thought did nothing and then the unit wouldn't work when I deleted it. I like optical media as it can't be messed with once the disc is closed.

Hi sorry to bother you can you let me know how you managed to fix it i just did the same thing to my garmin nuvi 750

You have replies in the other topic you started:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/33808

Did the same to Nuvi 260. Garmin support no help. How did you resolve the issue?

Yes, how did you mange to fix it? You might want to include your solution in this topic.

Hi vobgro, I have almost same kind of problem so I am also looking for the original files for the nuvi 350 (without the map image file). Please let me know if you have found them.
I have emailed garmin, I have read on many forums and everyone says I have corrupted files. So Reset does not work, Webupdater does not work, I formatted then reinstalled the files I had backed up and still No map data available. Map Info in sytems tools is greyed out, so If I can't find the original files, it will end up in the garbage. It is an old model so I do not want to pay garmin to fix it. So I am also in need of someone's kindness.
Thanks.

Does anyone know how to fix or find files to restore a 1300 LM? Garmin tech wants to send it back to them for $99, and the unit doesn't cost much more than that. Thanks,

Since you are new here we do not know what you have.

How long have you had the unit?

How did the problem occur?

Others have been successful in using it.

No backup. Actually the unit belongs to an 70+ year old friend who received the unit as a Christmas gift just over one year ago, and he claims that is simply stopped working, however, when I contacted Garmen they told me all base files are missing. After looking around it sounds like several others had a similar problem and perhaps the files were re-formatted? Not really sure. Thanks

What do you mean using it? using what? Sorry, but I am new here. Thanks in advance.

He was speaking of the garmincure3 program. It is a method to flash firmware to the protected memory location and make the device bootable. However, without a backup of the missing files, it would not make your nuvi a fully functional unit.

do you think you can send me on a rapidshare or else
all original files for the garmin nuvi 350 i have the same probleme then him http://www.poi-factory.com/node/33271 thanks in advance

I didt find any orginal files for the 350
so right now iam trying to install the original files from a 255 we will see what appent in about one hour

if it working i will send you a link to be able to download the original nuvi 255 files from dropbox

Hi, I saw that you helped a fellow with his garmin 350 files when he by accident formatted his unit instead of his Sd card. Now the same has happened to me and i would need some help if you have the time and feel for it. I cant find the files for the unit anywhere. Could you please help me out?

I have lifetime support for the maps, so the maps are no problem. I fact I have downloaded them on to my computer and trasfered to the SD card with MapInstall. That part is taken care of. But now I cant use them since I formated my units memory.

Can you please assist me I would be extremly greatful!

Best regards from Sweden
S