@jinxxxxxx
Do you have an original PC installed version of V7, or have you reverse-engineered an image file using GMAPTool and the simple install.bat method? If the latter, search will not work correctly with any image then recreated from using MapSource or MapInstall. Btw, MS is ok for older maps but new large gmap folder NTs such as NA are compiled differently and it's better to use them in MapInstall to create img files.
Provided the combined map image is less that 4GiB and all map tiles are either locked to the unit [in the case of the oem map] or unlocked with gimgunlock.exe [in the case of the newer map] then it should be recognised by the unit. Therefore I'm not sure if using an NT such as 2011 as or earlier non-NT locked img file would matter in that case provided it's OEM.
@gto49
Your conclusion that the original card must be used for testing may be correct. It's absolutely correct if the map was supplied as a pre-compled image locked to the card rather than locked to the unit. jinxxxxxx has been able to do a simple copy of the oem map data from one 2GB CF to another and still have full search enabled, which indicates locked to the unit's ID and that's also confirmed by his experience when the board was changed [new UID].
The purpose in doing a RAW copy 'clone' of the card is so that as nearly as possible the cards are the same, i.e. precise byte by byte copy of the data before then combining the non-NT and NT images on the cloned card itself. If you'd like to do the tests using simple copy/paste that's fine. Even a RAW copy test isn't definitive, only a test on the original oem card is definitive as you've concluded but i don't wish to encourage you using an original cord which may then be crippled.
Thanks for the tests so far guys.