My New TT Arrived.

[William Young]

My new TT arrived in the mail yesterday . With this being my first GPS (apart from the WalMart one I sent back a day or so after getting it) I will have some questions that will seem simple to some but not for me so please bear with me.

While waiting for it to come I read the instructions in the sticky here about backing up to Windows Explorer. I set a folder there on my C drive as recommended and thought my backup was going there. After about 20 hours of stop-start timing out I finally got it loaded but find it only went to the TomTom and is not backed up at all yet. Does this mean it is to late to back up to Explorer ? Would I have to go through another 20 hours ? I still have the option to backup in TT Home and have not yet done that.

The box says XL340.M Lifetime Maps Edition.
On the top right corner of the TT screen it says it is a TomTom XL IQ Routes . What is IQ an abreviationn of ?

I put my home address in wrong and after several attempts have not been able to delete it . I find the delete button but it does not remove the address I have in it. Should I be putting my Home address in from home here or should I do it after driving to a distant location ?

Oh, one more Question. I am in a border town in Canada . 6 miles from USA and travel to USA often. Will it accept a US destination while set for Canada or do I have to switch back and forth . If I have to switch to USA for entering a US address , how do I go about that ?

Sorry for the long message and seemingly stupid questions.

Who knows, someday I might be able to help someone else out here that is a starting greenhorn like I am now.


EDIT With Correction

I just now checked My Computer in Explorer and the backup did indeed go there . It is in a separate folder called Tom Tom (G) and it has a LOT of files and folders in there when I open it up.
Should I also do a backup in TT Home ?

 

[canderson]

My new TT arrived in the mail yesterday . With this being my first GPS (apart from the WalMart one I sent back a day or so after getting it) I will have some questions that will seem simple to some but not for me so please bear with me.

While waiting for it to come I read the instructions in the sticky here about backing up to Windows Explorer.

No idea what was happening or why it was taking so long. The instructions are here -> https://www.tomtomforums.com/genera...4-how-backup-contents-your-unit-computer.html

I always just create a new folder on my HD and copy the entire device folder over to it. 20 hours is crazy. Not sure what was being backed up to where, but that's way too long for a simple 2GB copy.

The box says XL340.M Lifetime Maps Edition.
On the top right corner of the TT screen it says it is a TomTom XL IQ Routes . What is IQ an abreviationn of ?

IQ as in your TomTom is a smartypants. Actually, it has to do with routing based upon historical road speed data sliced and diced by day of week and time of day, among other things. Barring any incidents, it provides the quickest routing time from A to B.

I put my home address in wrong and after several attempts have not been able to delete it . I find the delete button but it does not remove the address I have in it. Should I be putting my Home address in from home here or should I do it after driving to a distant location ?

Don't try to delete it, just re-create it .. and we don't recommend installing your precise location. If someone grabs your unit while you're not home, they know right where to go. Pick a nearby intersection somewhere and call it close enough. You can put in the location at any time from any place.

Oh, one more Question. I am in a border town in Canada . 6 miles from USA and travel to USA often. Will it accept a US destination while set for Canada or do I have to switch back and forth .

Even in the U.S., if you're entering a destination in another state, you have to switch states to tell it where you want to go. Since it's all being held within the same map, it's no different bopping back and forth across the parallel, but you'll need to select for it. When you start to enter the address, you'll be offered your choice of all of the States, Puerto Rico, the V.I., and Canada as a single entry. Just pick the right state or Canada and off you go. They don't break it down by province - at least not on the North_America_2GB version of the map.

I just now checked My Computer in Explorer and the backup did indeed go there . It is in a separate folder called Tom Tom (G) and it has a LOT of files and folders in there when I open it up.
Should I also do a backup in TT Home ?

If you have an Explorer backup at this point, there's no need to do Home as well. Just be certain that you followed the instructions pointed to above when you did the backup, especially enabling the view of system and hidden files and folders.

 

[William Young]

Thanks for your patience with me . It sure helps to hear from ones that have these units and know their way around them.

I always just create a new folder on my HD and copy the entire device folder over to it. 20 hours is crazy. Not sure what was being backed up to where, but that's way too long for a simple 2GB copy.

It wasn't a problem with the unit or my computer. It was a probem with my IP service. It is a small private provider here in the mountains with a series of "radios" and dishes pointed toward them . Much better than dial up but not as good as high speed in the towns and cities . Way too many subscribers for the size of the system. It was copying a bit at a time and then showing a message that it timed out so had to keep re-starting.

I notice it is almost full to capacity from the download. I read somewhere that Mexico could be deleted to free up some space. I sure don't need any Mexico address's added into it. Could someone please walk me through the process of doing that or maybe provide a link to the procedure ..

Don't try to delete it, just re-create it .. and we don't recommend installing your precise location. If someone grabs your unit while you're not home, they know right where to go. Pick a nearby intersection somewhere and call it close enough. You can put in the location at any time from any place.

I have tried to delete my Home address and make a new one but so far have not been succesful with that. Trying to re-create it leaves the other one in there as well Being that it is so new and practically nothing stored in it , is there a way to bring it back to an original default setting without having to load it all up again ? Sure don't want to have to go through that a second time .

On my other one I sent back I could re-create the route and follow it through at different speeds right from home here.
Have not found that feature yet on this one but it is probably there somewhere.

 

[canderson]

It wasn't a problem with the unit or my computer. It was a probem with my IP service. It is a small private provider here in the mountains with a series of "radios" and dishes pointed toward them .

Um... most of us create a copy of our TomTom on a local hard drive. Where were you sending yours?!? A remote storage server?

Why do I get the feeling that we're confusing making that initial Explorer backup with you doing the update of your unit's firmware or map using Home? Very different animals, those. Please describe in additional detail what it is you have done so far.

I notice it is almost full to capacity from the download. I read somewhere that Mexico could be deleted to free up some space. I sure don't need any Mexico address's added into it. Could someone please walk me through the process of doing that or maybe provide a link to the procedure ..

Mexico cannot be split from the map. However, there may be some extraneous voices or other files on your unit that can be deleted. But let's not deal with that until we know where the heck you are in the process, OK?

I have tried to delete my Home address and make a new one but so far have not been succesful with that. Trying to re-create it leaves the other one in there as well

You can only have one "Home" location. It won't hold more than one in that slot. Please explain in detail how you added it on your TomTom. I get the feeling you used a "Favorite". If so, you can delete those via "Manage Favorites". Setting a Home location is a different procedure.

 

[William Young]

You can only have one "Home" location. It won't hold more than one in that slot. Please explain in detail how you added it on your TomTom. I get the feeling you used a "Favorite". If so, you can delete those via "Manage Favorites". Setting a Home location is a different procedure.

Can't remember. I spent a long time in there.
I think I started off by Navigate To and put my address in and then saved it to favorites and then to Home.
I would somehow like to be able to just wipe it all clean and start over.

Why do I get the feeling that we're confusing making that initial Explorer backup with you doing the update of your unit's firmware or map using Home? Very different animals, those. Please describe in additional detail what it is you have done so far.

This is getting more confusing all the time . Originally I said that I went to My Computer and it was there below all the other drives and it was called Tom Tom (G) as per the file I had made for it. It was full of a LOT of stuff when I opened it. Now I go back there and it is totally gone.
I have a feeling I loaded all the maps and Home and everything into it but it is a mystery to me now why it has vanished. I did not delete anything manually.
I might just try using the TT option and backing up in TomTom Home and take a chance that it will help if I ever need a restore because I don't know what I am supposed to be backing up in a folder in windows explorer. How long should the backup take . . . either way ?

 

[dhn]

Use Explorer to look at the contents of the map folder on your unit. Delete the file mapsettings.cfg from that folder. Remove the unit from the computer properly and restart. Your Home setting wil lbe gone as well as any favourites you may have established.

But you will be starting fresh.

 

[William Young]

Use Explorer to look at the contents of the map folder on your unit. Delete the file mapsettings.cfg from that folder. Remove the unit from the computer properly and restart. Your Home setting wil lbe gone as well as any favourites you may have established.

But you will be starting fresh.

I just now went into Exporer and this time I clicked on Drive C . Sure enough the TomTom Backup folder that I created and named as such is there but it is totally empty so I guess I didn't back up anything at all after all that time of thinking I was.

 

[dhn]

Try it again and no, it shouldn't take anywhere near 20 hours......

Once more, the instructions are here:
https://www.tomtomforums.com/genera...4-how-backup-contents-your-unit-computer.html

 

[William Young]

Try it again and no, it shouldn't take anywhere near 20 hours......

Once more, the instructions are here:
https://www.tomtomforums.com/genera...4-how-backup-contents-your-unit-computer.html

Reading through those instructions again what does it meann by this

[QUOTEOnce that is done, double click on the drive letter represented by your unit][/QUOTE]

 

[dhn]

When you connect your unit to the computer, Windows via Explorer (not Internet Explorer) should show your unit as a removable drive and assign a drive letter. It may be e:, f: or something else -- depending upon how many other items you have represented as removable drives.

It is that drive letter I'm talking about.

 

[William Young]

When you connect your unit to the computer, Windows via Explorer (not Internet Explorer) should show your unit as a removable drive and assign a drive letter. It may be e:, f: or something else -- depending upon how many other items you have represented as removable drives.

It is that drive letter I'm talking about.

OK , thanks but it appears as if this is beyond my computer skills.
When I make a folder and turn on my TT it immediately goes to TomTom Home and I can't get past that.

I have started a backup using the TT option now and I will see how long that takes to back up. I started it at 10.33 and it is now 10.40 and the blue line is in about an inch from the left side already.
If it seems like it is going to be 20 hours like the last time I will just abort it and take my chances without a backup.
I have friends locally that use their units all the time andwhen I asked them about how they backed it up they had no idea what I was talking about . They had never seen a forum like this. They said they just loaded maps and started using them to find directions.

 

[dhn]

A TomTom Home backup is better than nothing but not nearly as good as doing one using Explorer. It really is just a case of copying and pasting files from one location (the unit) to another (a folder on the computer).

 

[William Young]

Thanks for everyones help . It is much appreciated. I know how to copy and paste . I just can't find the files in order to paste them.
I am not completely comuter illiterate I do own a Woodworking discussion site with over a dozen different boards and almost two thousand members now. It takes a fair bit of computer knowledge as administrator of that.

Just checked the TT backup and it is ticking right along. Almost half way there.

If and when I figure out how to back-up to explorer would it hurt to have it backed up there as well as in TT ?
I have a couple flash drives that are not being used since I got my external hard drive continuous backup device.
Would using a flash drive help me for backing up the TT ?

EDIT

Just a note to let all know that the TT backup was sucessful and only took from 10.33 PM to 11.24 PM without any time out notices.