When Memory Runs Out On Device

 

So I am trying to update my old 3490LMT to give to a friend since I just got the Drivesmart 55. This is the first time Garmin Express said there is not enough internal memory for 2022.10. If I add a microSD card and do the update, is the entire map sent to the microSD card or is it a spill over when the internal gets filled up? I think the whole map image and associated junction views go into the .System folder and I usually like to back that up "in case" something happens but if only part of it goes there, that won't work so was hoping to find out if the entire map data would go onto the microSD card. Anyone know off hand?

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Garmin: GPSIII / StreetPilot / StreetPilot Color Map / StreetPilot III / StreetPilot 2610 / GPSMAP 60CSx / Nuvi 770 / Nuvi 765T / Nuvi 3490LMT / Drivesmart 55 / GPSMAP 66st * Pioneer: AVIC-80 / N3 / X950BH / W8600NEX

It will selectively place as

It will selectively place as much as can fit in internal memory. The rest goes the SD Card. Even the clone method keeps part on the SD card and part on the unit. You can still do your backup, just make a copy of the SD card and place that with the backup of the unit.

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Frank DriveSmart55 37.322760, -79.511267

I think it varies

I don't think there's a standard policy on what SD cards receive during Garmin map updates. I'm 90% sure I've seen only the JCV file installed to the SD card and at times, only the map or part of the full map on my devices installed to the SD card. I do keep all my Garmin devices current but on my old nuvi 855, I accept less than North America and no longer substitute the Large JCV file since it's so unlikely that I'd ever need to use it again.

If you really want a backup of every available file, you'll need a backup of the device and SD card.

Here's a thought, though. Should some file that's part of a map update be corrupted or the SD card fails or whatever, you can always reinstall the map update, either from Garmin or from your computer's hard drive from the Program Data Garmin Core Services, unless you've deleted those files from the computer. There could be bad files that prevent a Garmin device from booting and such, and that's why a backup is helpful, but I think it uncommon or rare that it'd be something like a map or jcv file.

To me, a backup is most useful for the tinkerer who goes into the seeable files and deletes them to save space, only to find they deleted a needed file. I won't guarantee this to be the case but for me, I now and for some time have not done a full device backup of files to my computer.

And ...

Just to confirm the map isn't split, at least the NA one isn't. The full EU map is now larger than 4Gb so is split into North and South as 4Gb is the maximum file size that FAT32 can deal with.

For the NA map either the full map will be placed on the card or device depending on space available.

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Where there's a will ... there's a way ... DriveSmart51LMT-S, DriveSmart50LMT-D, Nuvi 2508LMT-D, 1490LMT, 1310, Montana 650T, Etrex 20

I had to use the installed SD card..

with the latest map update on my dezl770. Have noticed absolutely no difference in performance. As has been mentioned if the SD card got corrupted I would simply re-install map on a new one. I would make sure you're buying a real SD card like Sandisk and not a fake and I don't believe you'll notice a difference. Just let Garmin Express do it's thing.

Thanks

Ok thanks. I will need to acquire another 32GB card. I think that was the max size for the 3490LMT (I'll have to check). The unit held every update internally until now so they must have added a lot since the 2020.x update.

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Garmin: GPSIII / StreetPilot / StreetPilot Color Map / StreetPilot III / StreetPilot 2610 / GPSMAP 60CSx / Nuvi 770 / Nuvi 765T / Nuvi 3490LMT / Drivesmart 55 / GPSMAP 66st * Pioneer: AVIC-80 / N3 / X950BH / W8600NEX

Overkill

Preroll wrote:

Ok thanks. I will need to acquire another 32GB card. I think that was the max size for the 3490LMT (I'll have to check). The unit held every update internally until now so they must have added a lot since the 2020.x update.

There's no problem with using a 32GB SD card if you have one but if going out to buy one, there's really no need to go larger than an 8GB card and really a 4GB would do.

Not Expensive

CraigW wrote:
Preroll wrote:

Ok thanks. I will need to acquire another 32GB card. I think that was the max size for the 3490LMT (I'll have to check). The unit held every update internally until now so they must have added a lot since the 2020.x update.

There's no problem with using a 32GB SD card if you have one but if going out to buy one, there's really no need to go larger than an 8GB card and really a 4GB would do.

They're so cheap now, I went for the 32GB 'cause eventually I'll re-purpose the card for something else down the road. I ordered a SanDisk Extreme I believe for like $11 (it was $2 more than a 4GB). In addition, I checked after the install and it appears some mapping data is on the unit and the rest is on the card. I just backed up both folders (INT/EXT) and I'm good to go. I will be focusing more on the newer unit I got honestly but wanted to keep the 3490 going a little longer until I give it to a friend.

Thanks.

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Garmin: GPSIII / StreetPilot / StreetPilot Color Map / StreetPilot III / StreetPilot 2610 / GPSMAP 60CSx / Nuvi 770 / Nuvi 765T / Nuvi 3490LMT / Drivesmart 55 / GPSMAP 66st * Pioneer: AVIC-80 / N3 / X950BH / W8600NEX

Ah

Preroll wrote:

They're so cheap now, I went for the 32GB 'cause eventually I'll re-purpose the card for something else down the road. I ordered a SanDisk Extreme I believe for like $11 (it was $2 more than a 4GB). In addition, I checked after the install and it appears some mapping data is on the unit and the rest is on the card. I just backed up both folders (INT/EXT) and I'm good to go. I will be focusing more on the newer unit I got honestly but wanted to keep the 3490 going a little longer until I give it to a friend.

Thanks.

I somehow, after reading this, was reminded of my first PC, an IBM PS/2 with an enormous 20MB hard drive (and 512k of RAM that I upgraded to a full MB). shock

Ditto

Preroll wrote:

They're so cheap now, I went for the 32GB 'cause eventually I'll re-purpose the card for something else down the road

I just did the exact same thing for the exact same reason. Like you said, the difference in price nowadays between a smaller card and a 32GB is almost nothing, and I'm sure I'll find use for it later on in some other capacity.

PS/2

CraigW wrote:

I somehow, after reading this, was reminded of my first PC, an IBM PS/2 with an enormous 20MB hard drive (and 512k of RAM that I upgraded to a full MB). shock

Ha Ha Craig ... that definitely ages you. Not too many millennials know what a PS/2 is.

But I guess I am a few years older than you. My first PC was an IBM PC/XT, IBM DOS 2.1, 5.25" 360K floppy drive, 20 MB hard drive, 640K RAM, an AST 6-Pack Plus add on card, an Amdek Gold monochrome graphics monitor and a 80 column dot matrix IBM Proprinter to top it off. Originally used Visicalc and Wordstar. It was the "bees knees" back in 1985. I paid about $4000 for it in 1985 dollars, bought on the "grey market" from a TX company named CompuAdd. I developed lots of software on it using Microsoft Basic Compiler. I eventually dumped Wordstar and upgraded to Word Perfect for an added cost of about $300. The system still worked perfectly when I sold the whole lot (including the desk I had it sitting on) in 1993 for $200.

Edit: When I said "first computer", I am not counting the Timex Sinclair or Commodore 64 that I also had grin

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Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

Ha.. mere newbies

My first computer was a Franklin Ace (AppleII clone) the business model with a Z80 card that then allowed running the CP/M operating system. The package came with Visicalc and Wordstar on 5 1/4 floppies. I recall purchasing a card from a company called Legend(?) so I could install CP/M. Then run Wordstar or Visicalc off one floppy and save my work to the other. I think that's how it worked.. it was a long time ago.

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Lives in Edmonton AB A volunteer driver for Drive Happiness.ca and now (since June 20 2021) uses a DS65 to find his clients.

Oh My

alandb wrote:
CraigW wrote:

I somehow, after reading this, was reminded of my first PC, an IBM PS/2 with an enormous 20MB hard drive (and 512k of RAM that I upgraded to a full MB). shock

Ha Ha Craig ... that definitely ages you. Not too many millennials know what a PS/2 is.

But I guess I am a few years older than you. My first PC was an IBM PC/XT, IBM DOS 2.1, 5.25" 360K floppy drive, 20 MB hard drive, 640K RAM, an AST 6-Pack Plus add on card, an Amdek Gold monochrome graphics monitor and a 80 column dot matrix IBM Proprinter to top it off. Originally used Visicalc and Wordstar. It was the "bees knees" back in 1985. I paid about $4000 for it in 1985 dollars, bought on the "grey market" from a TX company named CompuAdd. I developed lots of software on it using Microsoft Basic Compiler. I eventually dumped Wordstar and upgraded to Word Perfect for an added cost of about $300. The system still worked perfectly when I sold the whole lot (including the desk I had it sitting on) in 1993 for $200.

Edit: When I said "first computer", I am not counting the Timex Sinclair or Commodore 64 that I also had grin

I had a Times Sinclair with a Commoodore VIC-20. Doh! Use to run a BBS on an Atari 800 with a Hayes smartmodem (1982/1983). Also never had the $ to add the 287 math coprocessor for CAD. In school, used punch cards as well. OK, so now we know I'm of legal drinking age! smile

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Garmin: GPSIII / StreetPilot / StreetPilot Color Map / StreetPilot III / StreetPilot 2610 / GPSMAP 60CSx / Nuvi 770 / Nuvi 765T / Nuvi 3490LMT / Drivesmart 55 / GPSMAP 66st * Pioneer: AVIC-80 / N3 / X950BH / W8600NEX

Times Have Changed

CraigW wrote:

I somehow, after reading this, was reminded of my first PC, an IBM PS/2 with an enormous 20MB hard drive (and 512k of RAM that I upgraded to a full MB). shock

Your comment brings back old memories. My first computer was an Apple IIe but in my line of business, instrumentation sales to life science laboratories, changes were being made where a computer was used to control and acquire data for the lab instruments in place of dedicated control and data modules.

Instead of IBM, my company used an IBM compatible PC, the AT&T 6300 (a rebranded Olivetti M24). At the end of every year we tried to sell off all of the demo instrumentation and I bought a company demo AT&T 6300 computer with two floppy drives.

Wanting to get away from floppy drives (my Apple IIe comes to mind),I bought a HUGE 30 MB hard drive for around $430 and I thought I was the cat's meow. Today 30 MB is almost nothing and $430 for a 30MB hard drive would be robbery. Times have changed.

A way to help performance

When you get your Micro SD card, format it with the largest allocation unit size you can allocate:

FAT32 - 64 Kilobytes

exFAT - 32 kilobytes

While it may waste a bit of space, it benefit you in 2 ways.

First, when updating, there will be fewer write requests because each write request will be the size of the allocation unit.

Second, when you start your Garmin, the maps will actually load faster because there are fewer read requests.

And with files that are nGB's in size, yocwill notice a bit of a performance boost.

Fewer Reads / Writes = faster access because the allocation units are full. Smaller allocation units means more reads / writes which translates to more time.

With files that are a couple hundred Mb in size, you'll be hard pressed to notice any benefit, but with GB's of data, you can see the benefit.

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Never argue with a pig. It makes you look foolish and it anoys the hell out of the pig!

Yep

BarneyBadass wrote:

When you get your Micro SD card, format it with the largest allocation unit size you can allocate:

FAT32 - 64 Kilobytes

exFAT - 32 kilobytes

While it may waste a bit of space, it benefit you in 2 ways.

First, when updating, there will be fewer write requests because each write request will be the size of the allocation unit.

Second, when you start your Garmin, the maps will actually load faster because there are fewer read requests.

And with files that are nGB's in size, yocwill notice a bit of a performance boost.

Fewer Reads / Writes = faster access because the allocation units are full. Smaller allocation units means more reads / writes which translates to more time.

With files that are a couple hundred Mb in size, you'll be hard pressed to notice any benefit, but with GB's of data, you can see the benefit.

Similar to when we stripe a disk for video use otherwise leading to latency and dropped frames. Makes sense. I think the default was 128K but I have to check.

Thanks.

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Garmin: GPSIII / StreetPilot / StreetPilot Color Map / StreetPilot III / StreetPilot 2610 / GPSMAP 60CSx / Nuvi 770 / Nuvi 765T / Nuvi 3490LMT / Drivesmart 55 / GPSMAP 66st * Pioneer: AVIC-80 / N3 / X950BH / W8600NEX

TANDY 1000

I was in college, and with my summer job I purchased from Radio Shack a Tandy 1000 and a dot matrix printer for $1300. The computer ran at 4.77MHZ with two 5.25" disk drives, and 256K of memory which I eventually expanded to 640K. There was no hard drive, so I had to keep feeding disks in to run programs and save files. I had to deliver a thesis my senior year, and the entire thesis got corrupted by a computer virus. I had to postpone my thesis while I retyped the entire thing. It was the days of Lotus 1-2-3, Word Perfect, DOS and WordStar. I eventually got a 20meg hard drive for $500.

SD Card

I installed a SD card in mine and now have no trouble.