Montana 750i SD Card - 32GB Max... Really?

JohnnyG1956 over 2 years ago

A month ago, I bought Garmin's premier InReach product. Today, I found out that the latest maps won't fit on the device and it is limited to a 32GB SD card. (according to Garmin Tech Support)...

I heard of planned obsolescence, but this is ridiculous. Come on Garmin... get with the times.

I have a 64GB card in my cell phone that I am replacing with a 512GB card. I planned on using the 64GB card in the 750i. Has anyone tried a larger SD card in a 750i?

Thanks

-G

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0 walking_disk over 2 years ago in reply to atlas_cached

How about I put every topo 24K (West and Southwest for now) into a single 32GB disk?

Did you mean there are more than 20K map segments over two (or maybe three+) maps?

0 atlas_cached over 2 years ago in reply to walking_disk

You have to count all the map segments for the pre-installed maps also.

20K TOTAL.

0 walking_disk over 2 years ago in reply to atlas_cached

According to this page: https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=P85CN3ETHy8wcI6N0YFfD6

There are approximately 2K segments for each. And, total file size seems to be smaller than 32GB, assuming the data in this page is correct.

0 atlas_cached over 2 years ago in reply to walking_disk

I have not counted the total number of segments for the pre-loaded maps, which include City Navigator (North America or Europe), TopoActive (North America or Europe), and a DEM map for all of North America or Europe, but if they are broken up similar to the Topo 24K maps, which total nearly 10K for just the USA, you may exceed the 20K limit when they are all combined.

I'll have to look into the segment totals for the current map versions and see....

0 walking_disk over 2 years ago in reply to atlas_cached

Yeah. I forgot them. Maybe I should remove the Central America TopoActive.

0 atlas_cached over 2 years ago in reply to walking_disk

I believe the TopoActive Central America map data was rolled into the TopoActive North America Mapset in the most recent release. You likely will no longer have a TopoActive Central America map on your device after the current map update is completed.

EDIT: I guess just the Central America DEM that data was rolled into North America DEM map as the TopoActive Central America is still present.....

All together they have less than 1000 segments, so you'll be good to go!

0 econwatch 2 months ago

Thread revival as I was struggling with the same issue and found one simple solution.

Solved it by formatting larger sdcards (64gb+) with rufus-4.4p using Large Fat32.

0 atlas_cached 2 months ago in reply to econwatch

The Montana internal memory can only index a fixed amount of data from the SD card. Formatting larger cards to FAT32 will not increase this value.

0 econwatch 2 months ago in reply to atlas_cached

Ah, so total usable per the one "Garmin" directory on the sdcard is 32GB (FAT32) in addition to the segment limitations?

If so, that clarifies it, thanks.

The additional space is useful to move maps for storage into a separate "backup" directory.

Discovered its possible to maintain this using root file manager from my android to OTG USB connector to USB cable to Montana while in transit offline. Very handy.

0 atlas_cached 2 months ago in reply to econwatch

Yes, depending on content, you may be able to use more than 32GB on the card, but it cannot be guaranteed.

Storing additional maps and other data in hidden directories is a great use of the additional storage!