How to get Forerunner 305 data in Windows 10?

So I had access to the other Windows computer sooner than I thought. It just so happen it already had Garmin Express installed and a recent car device added to it. I tried adding the F305 and it failed, I noticed the device was off so I turned it on and while it was trying to locate satellites, I tried again in vain. I then tried the port in which the other Garmin device was in so I'm convinced that's not an issue, it was still on and it failed; I then removed it from the cradle, turned it off, then put it on and tried again, in vain.

Well... I guess I'll be looking for a possible mini-USB cable later today or tomorrow, and if that fails I'll order one from eBay.

DynV said:

I noticed the device was off so I turned it on

Leave it off. As soon as you plug the device into the computer and if the port/cable/cradle/305 are all working, the Forerunner will power on by itself and show battery charging status. If not, then something is wrong.

If Garmin Express is working correctly it will show a green dot indicating that there is a connection from the Forerunner  to the computer and Garmin Express.

DynV said:

looking for a possible mini-USB cable

The spare mini USB cables I have are from monoprice for $1.11 USD.

FWIW, I had some issues with my Forerunner 205. I had to wrap several rubber bands around the Forerunnner and the cradle so it was a very snug connection. Then it worked. I know that sounds a little crazy, but keep in mind the device is 15 years old.

As for the factory reset, is there data on the watch that you're afraid to lose? Has it  never been synced to Garmin Connect. You can check on Garmin Connect Web to see what is there?

Hi, I'm having issues with the USB driver. I don't think it's working, Windows 10 detects the F305 but it's listed as an unknown device in the device manager. Is your F305 listed as a Garmin product in the device manager? I'm using G.xpress 7.8.1.0 and the driver is from the Garmin website but it's old. 

The driver is dated 2012. I don't think there have been any driver updates since then. My F305 was purchased in 2006.

I don't think you need to install special drivers, as the driver for the older devices should be part of the Garmin Express installation package.

Thanks for the quick reply. My system shows exactly the same information you have with the one exception, my device has an error code 10

I've searched the net for possible answers but nothing so far addresses this issue.

The Garmin driver is actually nothing more than a text file that identifies the device. If you can find the file, open it in notepad to see for yourself.

The real USB driver is the standard Windows driver.

I had a FR305 for more than 10 years until the battery died. One thing I found is that I had better results if the watch was already in the cradle when I connected the cable to the computer as opposed to having the cable already attached to the computer when attaching the FR305 to the cradle.

I did a search for this 2.3.1.0 driver and found then newer 2.3.1.2 driver:  https://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=591

I manually ran the exe as administrator and my 305 was finally recognized.

You need to manually install the driver because Win10 is the most pathetic invasion of privacy and almost useless, too.

I should try to use this with Debian instead.