Restore backups to PC and Basecamp

Sorry if this question has been asked and answered elsewhere, but I'm not very good at PC stuff; and don't really understand gpx files.

I have over the years gained lots of backups of Basecamp routes etc to either external hard drives or USB pen dives, and I keep finding more of them as I try and clear out the external hard drive/pen drive.

I understand that if I try and import more backups that will overwrite the current files etc, but some say save as a gpx file(?) and then restore afterwards, etc set of backups-I'm now lost!

How do I save each back up as a gpx file, theGarmin website seems to say I can have a separate Basecamp on my PC(not sure how) and restore each backup to there.

Sorry if this doesn't make sense, hopefully I've explained the situation I'm in.

Many thanks to anybody who can explain things in very simple terms ;)

0 Eyelet99 over 3 years ago

Just to be clear:

BaseCamp formally backs up its data as a specific file type e.g. BaseCamp 2021-12-26.Backup. If you restore a .Backup file to a BC database it will overwrite the contents in that database.

A .GPX file is not a formal Garmin back-up file, but can be used to group a number of types of user data from by exporting them from BC. It may contain one or more waypoints, routes and/or tracks in any combination.

You need to tell us whether "lots of backups of BC" are .Backup files or .GPX files as these will need different strategies to help you.

0 aloneranger over 3 years ago in reply to Eyelet99

Hi Eyelet99

I have 4(four) Basecamp backups that are named BACKUP file, and another 4 (four) that are folders with a unique alphanumeric name IE 1KK098876.

If I double click on the alphanumerically named folders, they again are named by a date ie 2013.12.06 plus 6 further numbers in brackets (11,22,33), If I double click on that and it says Garmin, double click on that and it says gpx, File type-is file-double click that and it says 'folder empty'

I hope that info helps.

Many thanks

0 Eyelet99 over 3 years ago in reply to aloneranger

Okay, that's helpful. \Garmin\GPX is the standard folder structure for BaseCamp to be able to read GPX files from a removable drive. If there are no actual GPX files present then there is probably nothing there to lose. The number is probably a card or flashdrive ID?

Each time BC makes a backup, it essentially copies the current database contents, your folder structure and the map files (BirdsEye and CustomMaps), Geotagged Photos, etc and puts them into a zip file. Instead of a .zip extension it uses .Backup instead.

Unless you have been using a number of different BaseCamp databases over the years, then the 4 backups should simply reflect the contents of the database on the date it was backed up. If this is the case, then unless you know that your current database is missing content because of a crash or perhaps you deleted something in the past that you want back, then there might not be much point in trying to restoring each of the 4 backups?

However, if you did use different databases and do want to examine each backup then I think you will have to create four new BC databases and restore a backup to each one. BC is supposed to be able to restore backups from earlier versions, but I don't know how far back it will go (as you mention 2013). This will hopefully restore your files and folder structure at that timepoint in each new database for detailed review. There will probably be a lot of duplicates ...

0 aloneranger over 3 years ago in reply to Eyelet99

Hi Eyelet99

I think I understand what you have written, seems a bit complicated.

Just referring to your para 4 above, where you think that it might be possible to check each backup by creating 4 new BC databases, to restore a backup to each one; how would I go about doing that; as I have no idea. Computing isn't my strong subject, as I'm sure you've gathered, so the simpler the instructions the better.

Many thanks again

0 Eyelet99 over 3 years ago in reply to aloneranger

Well it does give you just one file to restore when you need to. Those that want to go further can unzip the file but that potentially would just makes it more complicated!

Creating a new database is relatively straight forward. I suggest you head over to the excellent GPSrChive site and open the BaseCamp Wiki: https://www.gpsrchive.com/BaseCamp/index.htm which covers this in detail. Go to the Function section of the Wiki and scroll down to the General heading to see a description of the Database Options and the icons you will need to use in Edit > Options > General - Database Options.

Then go to the section on Data Management and scroll down to the Multiple BaseCamp Databases section at the bottom which gives step-by-step instructions of how to do this in BC.

Make sure you have backed up your current database and have duplicate copies of each of the four backup files before you start, just in case.

Once the four new databases are created, you will need to restore one backup into each. Remember that BC can only have one database open at a time.

If anyone reading this has ever done this before, it would be interesting to get their thoughts on the most efficient way of comparing the contents of four separate databases and merging them into one.