TomTom 910 Lost Maps

[Dr Houx]

Hi,

I have a TomTom Go 910 for which I had the default Western Europe Maps (Probably from 2007-08) and also the North American Maps (last update purchased in 2010).

I had not used the device for 3 years due to built in Satnav in the car and when I recently powered it up, it was asking for a password. I don't recall setting a password and as I couldn't guess what it might have been, I was stuck.

I tried TomTom support who suggested I try using TomTom Home to reset the password, however this was not possible. The final suggestion was to backup the device, format the drive and restore the backup.

I've done this and the backup and restore seemed to work and a password is no longer required. Unfortunately it seems that my maps were not included in the backup and subsequently not restored. Is there any way (other than buying new ones) that I could get copies of the old maps?

From looking at the TomTom as a drive in Windows Explorer, it seems that I still have the .mds files as follows:
Western_and_Central_Europe-xxxxxxxx.mds
North_America-xxxxxxxx.mds
Guam-xxxxxxxx.mds

The xxxxxxxx is a alphanumeric code that I haven't posted here just in case it's something that should be secret. Happy to post if it would help.

I don't have any other map files and when I start it up I get the "No maps found!" error.
If anyone can help it would be very much appreciated.

 

[Arno]

When new, did you never make a complete Windows Explorer back up of your 910?

 

[Dr Houx]

Hi Arno,
I think so, but that was several years and PC's ago. (I have 3 old hard drives and a USB to ATA cable and I'm checking through each).
No luck so far but I'm trying EaseUS Data Recovery on each to see if a backup could be recovered.

As I have yet to find one, perhaps it's best to assume I don't have a backup that can be used.

 

[Dr Houx]

Fixed it.
When I wiped it I did a quick format, not a full format and without the maps, these sectors had not been overwritten.
I used EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard on it and by sorting by date was able to recover a folder of files from 2006 and a folder of files from 2010. These turned out to be the Western Europe and American maps. I renamed the folders according to the .mds files, copied them to the Go 910 and restarted. It now works as before, without the password and with European and American maps.
After 9 years, I'm delighted that it still works and will live again.

 

[Arno]

Congratulations, Dr Houx.
It is alwayas great to hear about a success story from a fellow TomTom user.