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Formatted internal Hard Drive Garmin 1490 - please help

Former Member
Former Member
I am a fool. Please no questions why. I was updating my micro SD card and formatted the hard drive instead :(

I have formatted my internal satnav's hard drive and now I can't see the sat nav in...

A: Garmin website
B: Garmin WebUpdater
C: On my mac via disk utility
D: via Windows on my mac via windows bootcamp (laptop).

I just can't see the drive to add anything back onto it. I have a complete backup of the drive but as I can not see the drive, I can't do anything.

I believe it was formatted to FAT. The machine starts up but stays in the "Garmin Logo" screen and stays there. I even try and see the micro SD card that is inserted but it won't mount either.

Please help in simple english as I have already googled many times, "formatted internal 1490" and read 100s of posts but never found a solution.

Thanks in advance. :D
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 12 years ago
    Nice, so 36 people viewed this but not 1 comment. What an outstanding forum we have here!

    Would you mind telling me where I can find some help?
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 12 years ago
    So what do you want? All the files from a 1490T unit?

    I suggest you return the unit to Garmin for "repair" and when you get it back copy everything from the unit to a backup drive/CD/DVD/etc.

    As for the 36 views I was one of them. We are volunteers not Garmin employees here. It's a user-to-user forum.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 12 years ago
    Hi Stuart,

    Thanks for the reply. Sorry I thought I had written what I had wanted but I think I may have not been clear.

    I want to be able to access the sat nav's internal hard drive, so I can put the files that I have saved back on. The sat nav sits with the Garmin logo.

    Sadly I can't see the internal drive to do this. I have the files backed up so that is ok. I have read many forums and tried many things but to be honest they all kind of go off on so many different tangents with no particular endings that work.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 12 years ago
    Ahhh. Try performing the steps in this post. They've worked for me in the past to get a dead unit into USB mode.

    https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?9438-1490T-stuck-on-quot-Loader-Loading-quot&p=46512&highlight=touch+calibration#post46512
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 12 years ago
    Great, thanks for your help I'll give these a try. ;)
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 12 years ago
    Hi
    Sadly this did not work. As I have completely formatted the internal drive there is nothing happening.
  • Try this:

    1. Power OFF your Nuvi.
    2. Press and keep holding the most right upper corner of the LCD screen
    3. Power ON your Nuvi but DO NOT release your finger either from Power button nor from LCD screen (keep both pressed until the procedure ends)
    4. You will notice Nuvi boots in Pre-Boot mode. Now quickly connect your USB cable. Prior to that make sure you have the latest Garmin USB drivers installed on your PC
    5. If you managed to connect your USB to your Nuvi when it is still in pre-boot mode, you will see that Windows recognizes a new device - "Garmin GPS unit" and starts searching for drivers. Nuvi after a while turns the pre-boot mode off, but nevermind, finish installing the windows drivers.

    You should now be able to load your files, however you said you think you formatted it as FAT, it needs to be FAT32
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 12 years ago
    Try this:

    1. Power OFF your Nuvi.
    2. Press and keep holding the most right upper corner of the LCD screen
    3. Power ON your Nuvi but DO NOT release your finger either from Power button nor from LCD screen (keep both pressed until the procedure ends)
    4. You will notice Nuvi boots in Pre-Boot mode. Now quickly connect your USB cable. Prior to that make sure you have the latest Garmin USB drivers installed on your PC
    5. If you managed to connect your USB to your Nuvi when it is still in pre-boot mode, you will see that Windows recognizes a new device - "Garmin GPS unit" and starts searching for drivers. Nuvi after a while turns the pre-boot mode off, but nevermind, finish installing the windows drivers.

    You should now be able to load your files, however you said you think you formatted it as FAT, it needs to be FAT32



    Hello,

    Thanks I'll give this one a go when I am at home tonight and check back later. So even though I have actually formatted the internal hard drive there will be a chance of doing the above actions? I thought that I may have turned the Sat Nav into a paperweight.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 12 years ago
    Yes. That's how you get into a bricked unit. I've done it.

    It may take several attempts and it may not do exactly what the instructions say but that's generally how you do it.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 12 years ago
    Thanks for the help from both of you. I have tried all last night pressing the top left and top right, also using different pointing things.

    Sadly it had defeated me. The furthest I have got is that it shows up as an unspecified drive on the PC. Nothing I can format or mount.