Sd Card in XT

[VA3TWT]

Another question(or two) if I may. I haven't received my XT yet but it is on its way. I want to use a micoSD card in the unit to store MP3 files and any other data that should go there.

Do I format the SD card in the XT? Does it create a file structure when the unit powers up?

I didn't see much info regarding the SD card in the manual I downloaded.

Thanks again for the help;
Gord

[rbentnail]

I'm guessing the XT will do as the 595 does:

I bought a new SD card for my 595. I put it in & turn on the device and it asked if I wanted to format the card. I selected 'yes' and it did its thing. No computer formatting or file structure creating necessary. The 595 did everything it needed to do for the card to function with maps. For music I simply copied my MP3 Music folder to the card. For routes I simply drag & drop from my list to User Memory. That's it, nothing special. It's worth a try.

I will caution you tho. I purchased a large capacity card for my 595 and it worked great for a couple yrs. I listened to music from it and transferred all my routes to it rather than to internal memory. To me there's a tremendous advantage there. But after about 2 yrs something went wrong. I kept getting "unable to read" errors in Base Camp when attempting to access the card. This card had never been removed from the 595 but "somehow" it got set to read only. I tried every suggestion on the web and cannot get it unset from read only. Unless I reformat it it's useless. From my experience I learned- don't spend money on huge capacity cards like I did. Buy smaller, cheaper ones, large enough to do the job but cheap enough not to anger me when something goes wrong with it. It's guesswork in the beginning but for me 4 to 8 gb seems about right especially if I can catch a couple on sale.

[VA3TWT]

Russ, thanks for your comments. They are most helpful.

[Exurban]

I’ve also read that it has to be formatted as FAT32, and not anything else like XFAT, etc. And, the manual says the max size is 64 GB. Some have had luck with larger but no guarantee.

[simoncrewe]

According to this Garmin page the max. card size is 256gb formatted to FAT32.https://support.garmin.com/en-GB/?faq=U ... tab=topics.

[VA3TWT]

I bought a 256GB card so I hope it will work. Still waiting for my XT to arrive.

[1200GSZumo]

Hoping someone may have overcome the problem I'm faced with. Just got my XT and trying to add 64GB sd card. It does not seem to be detected. Unable to see the card using windows explorer and don't find a way to view directly on the Zumo or using Garmin Express. I read that the card must be formatted using 'FAT32.' However this formatting is not available in Windows 10. The default format is exFAT and the only other option is NTFS. I've tried both but the card is still invisible and doesn't seem to be recognized by the XT. I also tried a different 128GB card, same result. I also have a Zumo 396 with a 16 GB card which works just fine. It however, may have been formatted in FAT32 when I did so with an older operating system. I may try putting the SD card from the 396 into the XT to see if it's recognized. I also have an older PC around the may have the FAT32 formatting option and might try that. Anyone else wrestle with this issue and overcome it or can confirm that the formatting is indeed the issue? TIA and cheers!
[Update: I tried SD card from my 396 and it was detected and appeared when inserted into the XT. Unless I get new insights, my next test will be to drag out an old PC with a previous Windows OS and try a FAT32 format on the 64 gig card.] Other suggestions welcome!

[rbentnail]

Try this:

Turn the XT off. Remove the SD card. Turn the XT on. Wait for a while, give it plenty of time. Now while it's on, insert the SD card. You might get a message " do you want to format". If so you're good, click yes. If not then get a new card and follow these steps again. DO NOT PRE-FORMAT. The XT will format it for you.

[lkraus]

I'd probably use the method above to let the XT format the card, but there are many free Windows utilities available to format large SD cards as FAT32. Here is one that I've used on SD cards and other storage devices: https://www.easeus.com/partition-master ... ws-10.html

[rbentnail]

Took about 1.5 seconds for the XT to format a 128gb card for me.