New to tomtom SD - card guidance needed!

[enery8]

Hi, By way of introduction, I am new to this forum and my name is Bill. I am 65 years old (some might say ancient) and this is my first TomTom although I have had a couple of Navman units.
I have just bought a TomTom GO 730. What I need to know is can I use the SD card in addition to the internal memory or do I have to choose which one to use and lose the use of the other. There does not seem to be much guidance available in the literature supplied so any advise would be welcome. Thanks in advance.

 

[mikealder]

Welcome to the forum, with the 730 you can use both the internal memory and the SD card at the same time the device will work out whats where.
Your device will also support the SDHC type cards all the way up to a capacity of 32GB, if you do go for SDHC try and get a "class 6" or better, the class is the speed of the card, the higher the number the faster the card - Mike

 

[enery8]

New to TomTom - SD card question

Thanks Mike, now I know I will lookout for a suitable SD card. I tried to download a Map update recently but did not have enough memory available so thought the memory card might be the answer but could not find the info anywhere. One entry on here and minutes later got the answer - excellent!! Thanks again, Bill

 

[canderson]

Bill - you'll find that many of us here have relegated our map (or map collections!) to the SD card entirely for one reason or another. You've just run across one of the reasons for that. With the increase in size of the file set for western Europe, it's become almost essential unless you want to play swapsies with the maps on your computer all the time. This just happened at map version 850, and that's likely what you're trying to receive.

If you're doing only European maps, a 4GB card would suffice. Adding North America will start to push that limit a bit, and the growth curve of these maps is becoming apparent, and 8GB starts to make sense as a safety measure for the future.

You'll find that you can move your entire map folder over to the SD card and your 730 will be just as happy to find it there as it will to find it in internal memory - providing you take Mike's advice on the Class 6 card.

Your new SD card will show up as a 2nd TomTom "external drive" on your PC.

 

[enery8]

New to TomTom - SD card question

Thanks to canderson for your input. I will only be using my 730 for the UK and maybe France so will only 'need' a 4Gb sdhc card but will follow your advise and go for a 8Gb to allow for future expansion. The software writers seem to push to the limits What a great forum!! I am sure there will be more questions as I get used to my new toy, many thanks guys
Bill

 

[enery8]

Hi again Mike, I bought an 8Gb SDHC card and tried to initialise it as per the instructions on TomTom Home. i.e. Back up device, disconnect device and insert the card the restore the backup but it dose not seem to recognise the card. Am I doing something wrong or missing something, please advise.
kind regards
Bill

 

[dhn]

Do you have a card reader? Insert the card in the card reader and use Windows to initialize the card as fat32, not NTFS. It's the only file system that the tomtom will recognize.

Also, use Explorer to make your backups/restores; don't use Home.

 

[canderson]

Hi again Mike, I bought an 8Gb SDHC card and tried to initialise it as per the instructions on TomTom Home. i.e. Back up device, disconnect device and insert the card the restore the backup but it dose not seem to recognise the card. Am I doing something wrong or missing something, please advise.
kind regards
Bill

Not sure what all of that backup/restore business was about unless it was to move your map to the SD, which could have been done a bit more easily.

When you connect your 730 to your computer, do you see two "external drives" that represent the internal memory of your 730 and the SD card separately?

 

[enery8]

newbie again!

Thank you dhn and canderson for your quick replies. canderson, when I look at the devise in 'mycomputer' it shows tomtom as disk 'L' and another card as disk 'K' which I know is the SDHC card but it is not identified as tomtom. dhn advises using explorer to backup and restore. I have looked at the card properties in explorer and it is initialised as FAT32 so that is okay. Should I back up to disk C then transfer all the backed up info onto the SDHC card? The card reader does not read the card but I can access it through the TomTom GO. Looking forward to your replies
kind regards
Bill

 

[dhn]

Let's be clear so we don't steer you in the wrong direction.

With the card inserted into the unit, when you connect to Home, Home does NOT ask whether you want to use internal or external? Correct?

If so, I'm inclined to think that the card is formatted at NTFS which Windows can read but TomTom, being built on a linux base, cannot.

That's why I suggested making sure the card is formatted as fat 32. But, to be sure, use Explorer and highlight the drive showing the card. Right click and select properties. What does it show for 'file system'.?

 

[enery8]

Let's be clear so we don't steer you in the wrong direction.

With the card inserted into the unit, when you connect to Home, Home does NOT ask whether you want to use internal or external? Correct? Home shows both internal and external, when I select external it still tries to load updates etc onto the internal.

If so, I'm inclined to think that the card is formatted at NTFS which Windows can read but TomTom, being built on a linux base, cannot.

That's why I suggested making sure the card is formatted as fat 32. But, to be sure, use Explorer and highlight the drive showing the card. Right click and select properties. What does it show for 'file system'.?

I have checked this and it is FAT32.

I have tried change devise in the device menu but that makes no difference. Should I copy the TomTom internal memory over onto the sd card in explorer?

 

[dhn]

Wth the card in the 730, try a pin reset on the unit. See if that helps..............

 

[canderson]

With the card inserted into the unit, when you connect to Home, Home does NOT ask whether you want to use internal or external? Correct?

If so, I'm inclined to think that the card is formatted at NTFS which Windows can read but TomTom, being built on a linux base, cannot.

It's the TomTom's Linux kernel that must read the SD card volume and communicate the contents report back to the PC, so that would indicate that it's formatted in a way that the TomTom is happy with.

The user is now reporting that the only immediate problem is that when he selects the external drive from Home, his map data is being restored to internal memory instead of the SD card -- not too surprising given the way Home behaves. It still sees that map folder over on the internal. He left you some blue text in that quote up there that is easy to miss: "Home shows both internal and external, when I select external it still tries to load updates etc onto the internal."

Since the OP now has an Explorer backup, I'd be inclined to just have him use Explorer to copy his entire Western Europe map folder over to his SD card, assure that it's actually there, and delete the map folder from the internal memory on the TomTom. That's what you and I would do in any case.

 

[dhn]

Yeah, missed that.......

Amongst Home's strange behaviours is indeed its proclivity to decide where to load stuff, regardless of where the user has selected.

That's why Bill Gates invented Explorer, I guess..........

Your suggestions (as usual) should work.

 

[enery8]

re newbie again!

Another vote of thanks due to you guys. Sorted the SD card problem following your instructions. Great help this forum, TomTom don't give anywhere near enough info so good job there is a forum where I can get the answers
Many Thanks again chaps
kind regards
Bill