Really cheesed off with Garmin, have bought their North & South America maps to download and wasted 3 days trying to get them to download. Have followed all of Garmins's instructions plus some.

I vaguely recall that download purchases are locked to whatever garmin machine you have registered with the company, whereas if purchased on a SD card the mapping can be moved around.
Or, is it the other way around??

Ask for your cash back and use OSM?

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Dave

North America IS worth buying just for better lane guidance and better routing BUT unless it has gotten a lot better in the last two years, South America is inferior to OSM and has barely more than major roads in a couple of countries.

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Tony
Click here for Travel Photos & Travel Map

GARMIN maps downloads install directly on the device that is connected to the computer, and can normally only be viewed on your computer screen when the device is connected. Problem is, at times, the device available memory is insufficient to install the downloaded map or connection is lost, and this creates a number of difficulties, and frustration. It's always better when downloading to insert a new blank SD memory card in the device so that the install goes straight on it without problem. Note the map will be locked to the device in any case, so won't be readable on another device.

Until recently you could buy the DVD map and install it on the computer with the valid key, then upload portions of it to the device of your choice, while keeping it available on the computer at all times. Nowadays GARMIN DVD maps are increasingly difficult to get hold of, the offer varies according to the market. e.g. if you look at the GARMIN web store in Europe vs North America you find that some maps are available in the three different formats (DVD, SD and downloadable) while not being in other markets. Prices vary as well, so it's sometimes worth purchasing elsewhere.

As Walkabout mentions, the SD card indeed can be moved from a device to another and as such is possibly the best buy one can get, thouhj only readable on the computer screen when the SD card is connected, either thru the device or a simple card reader.

Thanks for the update.
That use of DVD technology is so "yesteryear" but Garmin have to continue with it in some parts of their market I guess.

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Dave