installing purchased map help

[Steve]

Hi all
Firstly im new to this stuff and i'm sure it will all come with time
but i bet you old hands forget how confusing it can be.
Anyway my problem & history
I purchased a garmin hcx vista to use enduro motorcycle riding to find my way home
it come witout any real maps installed just a plane base map.
I then progressed to the free map shonky maps which was pretty good for what it is
and i managed to get it onto mapsource althought i cannot remember how i did.
Yesterday i purchased TOPO Australia and NZ on micro sd card Put it in the gps and it works great. My problem is that i believe i should be able to put it into mapsource and do some things like waypoints and stuff there. But i don't know how to install into mapsource.
The card come with no real instructions in relation to mapsource other than if not carefull i can over write the card and loose my map.
I think if i get it into mapsource  i can copy a small section of the map onto my GPs along with waypoint and tracks I believe that was what i did with the shonky maps.
is that correct or and off track.
Any advice much appreaciated.
Thanks Steve

[Boyd]

Mapsource can't use maps that are provided on memory cards by Garmin. Note that it is old software that Garmin has discontinued, so there are some things that it just won't ever be able to do.

Instead, download and install Basecamp, which is Garmin's replacement for Mapsource: http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=4435

Place the memory card in a USB reader or a card slot if your computer has one, then run Basecamp. After a minute or so, the map will then be ready to use on your computer. The next time you do this, it won't take as long. You could also connect the GPS to your computer while the card is in it and Basecamp will be able to use it, however your device has a very slow USB 1.0 interface and that won't work very well.

Basecamp can only use this kind of map when the card is connected to your computer, you can't install the files permanently on the computer. You would have needed to purchase the DVD version for that.

[maps4gps]

Mapset data on prerecorded cards can not be transfered to the computer.
If it is a official Garmin prerecorded data card, you should be able to view the map data using BaseCamp.

[Steve]

Thanks for the quick response
I have read and installed so many programs over the last week or so trying to
sort out this issue,
The software that came with my garmin is Trip and waypoint manager
is that the same as either basecamp or mapsource,
Thanks again Steve

[Boyd]

Trip and Waypoint manager is the same as Mapsource. That program has been discontinued and cannot open your map. Basecamp is the replacement, and it will do what you want. Download at the link I posted above.

[Steve]

Thanks Boyd
Will do that

[Steve]

Yeh that worked fine thanks Boyd

Which leads me to another question
If i create waypoints and tracks in basecamp when i transfer them to my GPS the fact that i have tthe purchased map on sd card in my gps is it possible the the card might be overwriten with the new data is it possible i could lose some data.
Or is it possible to use a blank sd card to save the new map with waypoints and tracks.
I tried to backup my sd card but the backup will not work in the gps which forces me to use the original.
Thanks Steve

[Boyd]

Maps purchased on SD cards are copy protected and won't work on another card. The backup might be a good idea regardless, because if the card gets corrupted you could reformat and copy the files back to the same card.

On the eTrex there shouldn't be an issue with tracks and waypoints on the card because they are stored internally in protected memory that can't be directly accessed. Your unit might have an option to archive tracks on the card however, so you should be sure that isn't enabled (it is off by default).

Realize that tracks, routes and waypoints are considered "user data" and are completely independent of the map. You can display them on any map that you like.

Buying the map on a card might not have been such a good idea with your eTrex, because that device doesn't have any internal memory for map storage. So that will limit you to using only the purchased map while the card is in the unit. On units that also have internal memory, you could store additional maps there. Or with a DVD version of the map, you could combine it with other maps and put them on a blank card.