City navigator Europe NT to Mapsource

I can't tell by your account page what model gps you have.Most likely you have one that has not been changed over to mass storage mode. See http://www.poi-factory.com/node/41416 .That will take care of the MapSource problem as long as you have your maps installed on the computer.

To the best of my knowledge the only way you can get City Navigator maps to appear in Mapsource would be to download a map update to your device and computer or to the computer only. That was the reason that the Basecamp feature of letting you use a connected Garmin GPS or in your case use a CN SD card was such an advancement over the requirements of Mapsource.

I have a Nuvi 1490 with the Europe map chip installed in it. I copied the files from the chip to another chip and then mounted that as a drive and I use that to access the maps via Basecamp. It is odd that basecamp picked up the Europe maps but mapsourse did not.

Our friend sussamb will probably be along to confirm this, but as t923347 said a couple of posts above this, I think that Mapsource only displays maps that are installed on computer, not those contained on a GPS device. It is one of the reasons Garmin dropped support for Mapsource in favor of BaseCamp.

The maps do have to be installed on the computer and if you have one of the newer models (last few years) it has to be in mass storage mode.

So for the OP gnico, that says that there is no way to show a pre-installed SD card map from Garmin on Mapsource. He will need to use BaseCamp to see the map on a computer.

Quite correct (as usual ). There is no way Mapsource can read maps from a sd card, or indeed a GPS.

So your saying I can't install a map to Mapsource if it is not a downloaded map. Even with the chip in my unit it doesn't show in installed maps in Garman Express If I view maps ( under more info) on my unit it shows both the North America and Europe Maps being on the SD chip that is plugged in.

That is right, but as you discovered, it can be accessed by BaseCamp.

As already pointed out it's a major advantage that BaseCamp has over Mapsource.

I hate it when they don't play the way I want. Thanks guys for the input.

I just purchased the City Navigator U.K map set on the SD card and was surprised that I would not let me make one backup.
I hope the card is robust enough to survive normal handling.
I can understand that they have to protect against pirating of maps but at least one backup would ensure that in the event of an original card failure you could still access your maps without having to purchase another set.
My Nuvi 2797 reads the card OK and shows that I have both the full North America map and the UK maps available. I was wondering if having both sets in the unit would slow down performance in the UK.

You can still back up the files from your SD card, but they won't work on any other card. It will though help you if a file gets corrupted.

As for performance, I've had maps installed to a card for years and not noticed a performance issue.

The GPS is probably going to fail before the card.

If card will fail there is always chance to talk to Garmin about exchanging it. Only problem can be, that they probably will not exchange it for free to newer map

Thanks guys. I have made a back up of the files on the card and found out that they don't work on any other SD card.
At least the bought card works in all my GPS units.
I will be using my 2797 in the UK and I believe that these maps don't have junction views, but do they have lane assist and good voice directions the same as the North American maps..