Thread: Unbricked Drivesmart 70 ...

I thought my device wasn't quite the same after recovery. I will check for the basemap- this info isn't obvious and is very much appreciated!

To wrap up, after the Garmin encounter I searched GPSPower and what I learned from this forum turned out to be the key to fixing my bricked device. While in Windows, Kunix's Cure3 allowed me to switch my device into mass storage mode with the cure firmware and back to MTP mode with the original firmware. How useful this was wasn't obvious to me at first but I found it priceless in understanding how these devices work. I later discovered that Linux always opens the Garmin device in Mass Storage Mode. Windows is where you truly need the cure firmware so you don't have to switch from one computer to the other (real or virtual). Mass Storage Mode is critical to being able to access the device storage and remove/install files that you may or may not need. I did it probably hundreds of times without any ill effect. Using the 'Garmin stunt-double' technique mentioned above, the most current firmware (GUPDATE.gcd) was captured without having to guess if I had the right file or not. There was a GarminDevice.xml file in an old backup so I knew that was correct. There is a freeware program called XmlNotepad that made it possible to open GarminDevice.xml and verify my unit ID as well as change the file to show the current firmware (600). When converting GUPDATE.gcd to the cure .rgn file with the Cure3 software, Cure3 created a new folder (within the folder where Cure3 was located) and put the files inside that new folder. For me, when I selected the update software from within Cure3, update complained that it could not start. Moving the .rgn file into the same location as the updater software fixed that problem. I did read that for some, the name of this file may cause problems. I did not find this to be the case with my situation. I hit a wall at this point and figured I had to risk formatting and ruining my ruined device (thanks for that anxiety Garmin...). First, I formatted with my go to USB formatting app- SUSE Studio Imagewriter- to no avail. Then Rufus but Rufus couldn't detect the Garmin. Finally rmprepusb because I'm lazy and couldn't find an easy download. My first few download sites were full of Trojans and such- be careful. Formatting with the default settings on rmprepusb resulted in the same disappointment. More searching of this forum and I bumped into the post mentioned in the first post of this thread- how to format a Nuvi after using Kunix's cure. Following these instructions did the trick. The rest has been putting things back the way they were which has been a real challenge. Basemap helped a lot with transferring backup info back into my device. I tried just putting files in folders but that did not seem to work for me. Once my unit was working again, I backed up the NV ram using instructions from catymag here- [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]. I wasn't sure if it would work on a Drivesmart 70 but it did. My newer device was set for region 154. I hope I never need it. It would be pretty cool to find a list of commands for this way of interfacing with the Garmin but I'm sure it would be a lot like the root terminal- With great power comes great responsibility. My current quest is to make sure I have a base map installed. The unit does seem somewhat different than I remember and the post from Butters (above) sheds some light on this. Having found this forum, searched it, read from those who really know, reading the questions from those who don't, has made my recovery possible. The cost of a new unit was probably spent in the time of the first few weeks of research. But when I formatted my unit and it came back to life, that was worth more that a handful of new units. Hats off to you all and a big thanks!!!