Garmin software recovery after HD death?

[wfooshee]

So Thursday evening I'm doing stuff on the computer, and it gets really sluggish, and then freezes altogether. I shut off the power, and on POST I am notified that no fixed disks are present. I dissasemble the computer and sure enough, there's a drive there, but it won't spin up. Makes no noises at all. Dead.

So I'm rebuilding my apps on my new quad-core HP with 8 gigs of RAM and a terabyte drive, and find that the system won't read the City Navigator DVD that came with my 2720. DVD drive spins, whirs, click, grunts, but no data. Other discs are OK.

That version was superceded by an upgrade last year, anyway, when I downloaded the 2011.2 map update (and that download is long expired, although I have a product code for it.) I have the unlock codes, and it shows in Mapsource as "map product not iunstalled."

So now I have a 2720 with no way to talk to it in Mapsource or Basecamp. I have an support request in to Garmin, but with the holiday weekend, who knows when I might hear from them after the initial auto-replies I got.

I have the needed software installed on another PC, my laptop, and on my desktop at work. I don't think I can just copy file over and suddenly have working maps, though.

Does the collective know how to recover my 2011.2 maps onto my new PC so I can actually use my 2720 from home?

 

[03HiYoSilver]

You can try this link and look at "blankman"'s post.

https://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=98542&whichpage=2

 

[wfooshee]

It looks like he's trying to repair a download into the device. My device has my maps, my computer doesn't. I can't get the updated City Navigator onto the computer because the download has expired (hopefully Garmin can let me re-download - if all they will do is sell me the current update I'm not interested. One year old is not enough to worry about.) I can't even get the 2008 map installed that the unit came with, because my DVD is hosed somehow. (Perhaps attic storage was not a good idea.... I didn't realize the DVD was still in the box when I put it up there, and only found it after giving up on every place else.)

 

[twistedcricket]

It looks like he's trying to repair a download into the device. My device has my maps, my computer doesn't. I can't get the updated City Navigator onto the computer because the download has expired (hopefully Garmin can let me re-download - if all they will do is sell me the current update I'm not interested. One year old is not enough to worry about.) I can't even get the 2008 map installed that the unit came with, because my DVD is hosed somehow. (Perhaps attic storage was not a good idea.... I didn't realize the DVD was still in the box when I put it up there, and only found it after giving up on every place else.)

Have you tried the DVD in the laptop, or any other computer?

 

[03HiYoSilver]

I found this that may help:

Garmin Duplicate on Other Computer

 

The reg keys needed to migrate your Garmin data from one computer to another are;

 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Garmin

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Garmin

 

Assuming the folder/directory names are the same on two different computers, one can migrate all data, including the maps and the Mapsource application by copying files and exporting those keys to the new computer. Just open regedit, find those keys, right click the Garmin keys, choose export.. and copy the created .reg files over to the other machine. Double click and merge the registry data.. Answer yes, when asked.

 

I was frustrated to find that the 60 day window for downloading maps after purchase had closed well before my 60 days were up.. In fact, the window closed closer to 30 days. This inconvenient fact thwarted my goal of having Mapsource and the maps on both of my home computers.. as I could not download the updates to my second computer. I tried various things to do so based on net information.. but nothing worked..

 

A simple copy of the Garmin folders - using my home wireless network and an exporting and merging of the above regkeys allowed me to do it. I migrated the links in the Start Menu\Programs folder and all Garmin data located in Program Files, as well as the data files in All Users\Application Data\Garmin folder, and in the Username\Application Data\Garmin folder.

 

It worked perfectly.. I just had to go into properties of the links to restore some of the icons.. You can install the Communicator Plugin on the new computer to give yourself all functions.

 

[wfooshee]

That might get me where I need to be. Now I just have to figure the differences between XP and 7. Oddly enough, it's on XP on my laptop, and 7 on my work PC.

Who says there's no reason to put stuff everywhere you can find to put it?

And yes, the DVD is toast in any other computer. It's an older version than my updated maps, anyway.

We'll give the registry keys a look and see what happens.

 

[wfooshee]

SUCCESS!!!!!

I was looking at those registry keys, found the map data on the laptop, but didn't really think it would be as simple as copying the folder and adding the key.

It's really as simple as copying the folder and adding the key.

For reference, on an XP system the downloaded map was in the All Users\Applcation Data\Garmin\Maps folder. On Win7 it's in ProgramData\Garmin\Maps.

 

[03HiYoSilver]

Congrats... Glad it worked out.

 

[TomInPA]

I would have sent you 2013.10 unlocked on a CD. Glad you got it worked out.

 

[Bounce]

Backup frequently and to multiple destination.

 

[wfooshee]

I would have sent you 2013.10 unlocked on a CD. Glad you got it worked out.

Would have done me absolutely no good. The unlock is not copy protection to install the software, it's to match the software to a device. My device has a different serial number from yours, so your unlock code wouldn't unlock it for me.

Backup frequently and to multiple destination.

Backup didn't have the registry key mismatch between XP and Win7, which turns out to have been my fight. That doesn't mean don't back up, it just means this wasn't a simple restore.