G1000 SD cards backup

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gsontheimer
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Re: G1000 SD cards backup

Post by gsontheimer »

I created a new MFD-Card with a 4 GB SD (not SDHC) card, put it in the PFD and it wrote the airframe info file (did not do it in the MFD), I installed everythind newly but the base map (Terrain 9as, Airport Terrain, Obstacles, SafeTaxi, AirportDirectory).

Result: The MFD igonores it. The SD-Card is NOT read. What could be the problem? Only the missing base map (the is an older built into the MFD).
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cbrinton
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Re: G1000 SD cards backup

Post by cbrinton »

I've been working to create backups of my original cards as I wasnt real enthusiastic about the $500 per replacement cost that someone mentioned here and over the years Ive just had too many flash devices fail on me to be comfortable relying on one set. Im also not the original owner, so I dont have the login to the garmin website where I can download the basemap/terrain DBs again. I can certainly buy them, but I thought Id throw $20 and a couple hours at the problem first.

Interestingly enough, I bought a pair of 2GB cards to start the process only to discover that when I took my originals out of the G1000 that they were 4GB SDHC cards rather than 2GB SD cards, so I reordered Sandisk 4GB SDHC cards and was able to backup to HDD and restore to the new SDHC cards using an Ubuntu linux machine using the 'dd' command. I tested the cards out in the G1000 over the weekend and confirmed that all DBs were still listed as the version that I started with on the original cards. Im running 321.22 on the G1000.

Im not convinced I have everything perfect yet, because when I switched back to the originals it decided to verify all the DBs again. But other than that it didnt complain and the version numbers were still good.
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gsontheimer
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Re: G1000 SD cards backup

Post by gsontheimer »

cbrinton wrote:I've been working to create backups of my original cards as I wasnt real enthusiastic about the $500 per replacement cost that someone mentioned here and over the years Ive just had too many flash devices fail on me to be comfortable relying on one set. Im also not the original owner, so I dont have the login to the garmin website where I can download the basemap/terrain DBs again. I can certainly buy them, but I thought Id throw $20 and a couple hours at the problem first.

Interestingly enough, I bought a pair of 2GB cards to start the process only to discover that when I took my originals out of the G1000 that they were 4GB SDHC cards rather than 2GB SD cards, so I reordered Sandisk 4GB SDHC cards and was able to backup to HDD and restore to the new SDHC cards using an Ubuntu linux machine using the 'dd' command. I tested the cards out in the G1000 over the weekend and confirmed that all DBs were still listed as the version that I started with on the original cards. Im running 321.22 on the G1000.

Im not convinced I have everything perfect yet, because when I switched back to the originals it decided to verify all the DBs again. But other than that it didnt complain and the version numbers were still good.
What S/N is your DA40, when was it built? SDHC never worked in my G1000 system. And I have not managed to clone the SD-Cards, as I do not have a Linux System. Any cloning program in the PC world?
Gerhard

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cbrinton
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Re: G1000 SD cards backup

Post by cbrinton »

My DA40 is 40.863. I expect that there is PC software that will clone these, but I didnt find anything after a brief search. I'd still like to understand why it detected when I switched back to the originals, so I'll probably be looking into it a bit more. If I find a PC solution that works, I'll update.
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Re: G1000 SD cards backup

Post by neongoby »

Thanks Kai,
Followed your procedure and got a set of working SD cards. My plane serial is 40.675 and they are 2GB SD cards.
Two NavData updates ago, something happened and Garmin help asked me to delete a folder on both the PFD and MFD cards. The update then work.
However, I got a splashscreen not found error.
Any idea on replacing the image file?
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Kai
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Re: G1000 SD cards backup

Post by Kai »

John,

I am glad it worked for you. I am not sure on how to replace the image file and might not be able to check until December. So maybe somebody else has an idea.

Gerhard,

there is no way to clone SD-cards. That's what they mean with "SD"... Secure Digital. It is very secure. The SD-serial is written into a non-writable sector of the SD-card during the manufacturing process. You can read out the serial number, but you won't be able to write it to any other SD-card.
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Re: G1000 SD cards backup

Post by cbrinton »

Actually, I was able to clone my pfd and Mfd cards. I just verified it again after I updated the originals by making copies and starting up the pfd/mfd on the copies and checking the db versions. I did find a windows tool (at hddguru.com, beware the excessive add links) that would do the necessary raw copy and it worked fine. The original issue that I had with the DBs getting verified excessively was due to the fact that I had swapped the mfd and mfd card inadvertently. The next time through everything was fine. I will now be backing up my cards every time I update them.

The secure digital standard allows for many types of security on the card, both read and write, but it does not appear to be engaged on the cards in my aircraft. This technique does not work on the svt/taws/chart view cards (nor should it) as those have DRM engaged.
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Kai
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Re: G1000 SD cards backup

Post by Kai »

cbrinton wrote:Actually, I was able to clone my pfd and Mfd cards. I just verified it again after I updated the originals by making copies and starting up the pfd/mfd on the copies and checking the db versions. I did find a windows tool (at hddguru.com, beware the excessive add links) that would do the necessary raw copy and it worked fine. The original issue that I had with the DBs getting verified excessively was due to the fact that I had swapped the mfd and mfd card inadvertently. The next time through everything was fine. I will now be backing up my cards every time I update them.

The secure digital standard allows for many types of security on the card, both read and write, but it does not appear to be engaged on the cards in my aircraft. This technique does not work on the svt/taws/chart view cards (nor should it) as those have DRM engaged.
Did you adjust the serial nr to the one on the new SD-card?
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cbrinton
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Re: G1000 SD cards backup

Post by cbrinton »

Not explicitly. The windows app shows the serial number of both to be '00000000'
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Re: G1000 SD cards backup

Post by Kai »

cbrinton wrote:Not explicitly. The windows app shows the serial number of both to be '00000000'
But have you tried to make the "cloned" card work in the G1000?

To my knowledge, there is no way a windows app could read the hardware serial of an SD-card. The G1000, Android phones, any Linux based operating system will be able to read it... but still no way to write the serial.
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