Internal storage on Zumo 390LM

[abm1966]

Hi all,
I have read a few posts regarding the internal storage on Garmin devices.
I did an update (NTU 2022.2 v 25.20) on my Zumo 390LM yesterday which went as normal, upon checking afterwards on the file explorer I noticed that my internal storage was nearly full... i.e. 179MB free of 7.13GB.
Is this normal?
Having looked at the various files there is only one big one in MAP of 2.57GB, all of the other files are very small.
Where has the rest of the spare storage gone?
In Basecamp I have the two maps showing for Europe, north and south, can I delete the one for europe south?
Apologies if this has been asked before!
Andy M.

[jfheath]

Welcome to the forum.

You might have some old maps on there.

Have you enabled the .System folder to be visible when using a file browser ? A lot of map files are in there.

I don't know where it is on the 396, but on the 590/595 and XT It is in the MTP settings - which is located in the hidden Diagnostic Page -> Configuration and Settings. To get to the Diagnostic page Main Screen->View Map->Speed Button->Hold the Circular Speedo for 10 secs.

Correction. Although you can get to MTP settings in this way, it doesn't allow you to see the .System folder. I've corrected this in the post below after @abm1966's reply .

You may have older copies of maps stored.
Check out this thread - All may be relevant. 9th post down from me shows you how you can find out which filename relates to which map.
viewtopic.php?p=11511&hilit=basecamp#p11511

Sussamb's suggestion of renaming the file extension so that Zumo doesn't recognise it as a map is worth trying before deleting anything.
eg If I had a file called 123456789.img - I'd rename it as 123456789.imgjfh - so that I know what it used to be called.

And never delete anything unless you have saved it somewhere else first - and you have made notes to remind you where it came from. then if it fails, you can easily put it back.

[abm1966]

Hi,
Thanks for the welcome and quick reply!
I did read your post on the other thread but nothing seems to resemble what I have got.. I can get into the MTP settings but all it shows are three options, MTP Auto detect (which is selected), Mass Storage and Mass Storage Single Session, nothing else.
Thanks again.

[jfheath]

Ah.

Sorry - I made a mistake. I must remember not to rely on my memory for information these days.
But I keep forgetting !

No the above method doesn't work for the 590/595 either. Close, but not close enough.

Instead - try this. Same technique to access the hidden diagnostic page, but choose Mass Storage Single Session when you get the three options.

Plug the Zumo into your USB port on the computer. It will now show up with two disk drives instead of Internal Storage and Memory Card.

Find the one that represents the internal storage. That will have folders called Demo, Themes, Vehicle in it.
The .System folder is hidden. You may or may not be able to see it.

If you cannot see it, then the first thing to do is to ensure that your file explorer is showing hidden files. I don't know how to do this on a Mac / Apple device. But for Windows I have described the process in the quoted box below.

When you disconnect, the Zumo will revert to using MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) - because you selected 'Mass Storage Single Session'. If you had selected Mass Storage, it will remain in Mass Storage (which shows drive letters) rather than going back to MTP.

MTP is safer, because it doesn't require you to remember to formally eject the attached USB device from the Windows screen before you pull the USB plug out. In Mass Storage mode, if you forget to 'eject' from windows, then there could still be data in the computer's cache that hasn't yet been written tot he Zumo Memory.

But on the 590 and 595 you cannot see the hidden system folder in MTP mode.

Sorry about the first reply. I'm getting too old for this !!

Load Control Panel and select "File Explorer Options" (Which is in Appearance and Personalisation if Control Panel is grouped by Category).

You will see a window that looks like this.

Hidden files.jpg (45.95 KiB) Viewed 3738 times

You might want to make changes to the settings that I have marked in red.
Show the hidden files and folders.
Don't hide the protected operating system files (this may not be necessary - try without if you are unsure).
Untick hide extensions for known file types will always show you the extension - which will help with the map files which use the same name for 2 or 3 files, but each time with a different extension. (Though it makes no difference to the hidden .Systsem file).

This should show the .System file in your file browser - although it is probably still grey - becasue it is still marked as hidden.

Now you can see it, you can mark it as not hidden. Right click the .System file and select Properties. Untick the 'Hidden' check box.

[abm1966]

That`s fantastic, I will give that a go!
Many thanks

[abm1966]

Thank you for your continued help and patience!
I have done all of the above and as you said it displays two drives, E & F.
The F drive contains the folders mentioned but looking at them there is only one file in there of 2.7ish Gig and that is from the update yesterday.
Hope this makes sense as I am not very computer literate!
I have put a screenshot of the page on.

Screenshot (18).png (203.74 KiB) Viewed 3731 times

download/file.php?mode=view&id=1229

If I open .system this is what I see.

Screenshot (19).png (227.95 KiB) Viewed 3731 times

[jfheath]

You may need to compare with someone else who has a 396, but from your data I would suggest that this may be about right.

It would seem that the 396 has only 8GB of internal storage since you have only 179Mb of 7.13Gb. (Whatever the value is for memory (eg 8GB) you get much less than that for actually storing data, once the system has formatted the space to make it usable. Most of it is used for maps and all of the operating system files.

But there is enough memory there for the system to work. If you want more for music or for additional maps, use an SD card.

Some of the files can be removed, but you don't gain much. eg - Voice, Vehicle, Keyboards. There is no need, but if you choose to do that then always take a backup of any folder from which you delete files - just in case you need to put them back.

----------

Below are three screen shots of my Directory tree for my 595. It shows you where the space is being used.

Zumo 595 Level 1 shows the Main Internal Storage - the folder names on the left and the amount of space used. So in total mine has used 8.5GB.
But I have a few OSM maps installed which take up a fair bit of space. These are in addition to the same maps that you have installed. Most of them are not worth looking into, they take up so little space.

Zumo 595 Level 2 - shows the expanded view of the Map folder and the .System folder.

The one at the bottom is identical to the map file that you have and occupies 2.6GB. All of the others are unlock files for maps that I don't think I have now !

Down at the bottom is a folder for SID files. I haven't got a clue what they are for, but the names are related to the map file names.
Under that is a folder that contains 13 files and which occupies 3GB. So that it worth looking at.


Zumo 595 Level 3
These are the files that are within the .system folder

These are mainly map img and unlock files. However, GUPDATE.GCD is to do with the system firmware. It is what is used to install firmware updates, and once it has been used, I believe that it is no longer needed, and could be stored somehwere else out of the - on your computer perhaps. Suitably labelled - because there is nothing to distinguish it from later update files which have exactly the same name.

I cannot see that you have such a file though.


The only thing that is likely to grow in your file system is the GPX folder and Archive folder. These contains the track logs of where you have been, but the amount of space that they occupy is self limiting. GPX logs build up in size as you ride along. When the file reaches a certain size it is placed in the archive folder, and a ne wlog file is created. But it only allows the latest 20 to be stored, earlier ones are deleted. I've just looked at my logs from the 595. They never exceeded 3Mb, and there were only ever 20 of them. So that is only 60Mb and you have 179Mb free. So it isn't going to cause a problem.
If you have musice files, shift them to the SD card - \Garmin\MP3 - rather than having them in Internal storage. Its best to have the maps in internal storage if they will fit. The access is faster.

Garmin Express will let you know if there isn't enough room for a map in Internal Storage, and it will then put it (or some of it) onto the SD card instead.


Tree Size is a very handy program for looking at your folders and seeing where all of the space is being used in your system. I use it a lot. I have just checked, and there is no longer a free version available, although there is a free trail version.
But Wiztree is well regarded, and I've juts downloaded that to give it a go. Google it.

[abm1966]

Hi JF,
Sorry for the late reply,
Thanks for all of that, yes it seems that the files that I can remove are quite small, I am thinking that come the next update it may need to go onto the memory card, I don`t really need southern europe at the moment so it may be an option not to update that.
As long as the unit has not slowed down too much I will continue using it, otherwise it may be time to upgrade.
Just a thought....if I did a factory reset then reload the latest update would it still use up the same amount of memory?
Thanks again,
Andy M

[jfheath]

Hi JF,
Sorry for the late reply,
Thanks for all of that, yes it seems that the files that I can remove are quite small, I am thinking that come the next update it may need to go onto the memory card, I don`t really need southern europe at the moment so it may be an option not to update that.
As long as the unit has not slowed down too much I will continue using it, otherwise it may be time to upgrade.
Just a thought....if I did a factory reset then reload the latest update would it still use up the same amount of memory?
Thanks again,
Andy M

I don't have an answer to these questions that I can state as being accurate. I just have my own working assumptions.
If anyone has any additional information, please correct me !

I don't know whether or not you can remove one half of Europe. I've noticed that ticking / unticking one part sometimes has an effect on the other. I think the only reason for having two regions is that together they exceed the 4Gb limit for a single file. Basecamp doesn't have a north and south.

Factory reset ? I don't think that affects the installed maps. They survive a reset.

Having Internal storage almost full doesn't slow down the XT like it does a computer. As long as there is enough for it to store what it needs during operation - like the track logs. I suspect that the XT's storage requirements are met by whatever it has reserved in the ,System folder.

[abm1966]

Thanks JF,
I will just carry on and see what happens.
It is great that there are people that can spare the time to give some advice when it is asked for!
Thanks again.