[Toller]

I bought a GPS card. It worked fine, but when I tried to make a copy, it gave this error message. The card then was just dead.
The dealer said that I shouldn't have tried to copy it before going 80 miles, and the card had locked itself. He gave me a refund.
I bought a new card (for $18 less than the first one...$158.) It also works fine, though I am scared to get it near my computer.

Does the dealer's explanation make any sense?
I don't know if my SD reader is a SDHC reader or not. (in fact I don't even know if there is a difference between the two.) I would think that if the reader was inadequate, it just wouldn't work rather than damaging the card, but what do I know?

 

[greaseman85]

I'm not sure I understand why/how you were trying to make a copy. Perhaps they've put some anti-piracy thing in there to prevent unauthorized copying of the files.

If you need to make a backup or something, use the Mazda Toolbox.

The SDHC standard has been around since 2006, so unless your card reader is that old I can't see it being the problem.

 

[WxFisch]

Okay, let me tackle this in a few parts so hopefully it is not too confusing.

1) The dealer is right. You need to drive 80 miles with the SD card inserted before it will lock to the car. If you try to do anything to the card before this point the card will become corrupted and no longer work. This is a DRM (digital Rights management) technique to prevent you from buying one card, making copies and then using/selling them.
2) you should not need to manually manage anything on the card at all, plug it into your computer, run the Nav Toolbox from Mazda and it will do the rest (including backups).
3) SD v SDHC. I have a huge amount of experience in this department. In short, an SDHC card will not register in a normal SD card reader, only in an SDHC card reader. That being said, if you computer is somewhat newer (did it come with Windows Vista or later?) then it likely has an SDHC card reader in it. The difference, if you were curious, is in the maximum storage size. A normal SD card maxes out at 2GB, whereas an SDHC maxes out at 32GB.

 

[Playthru1]

Why should it kill the card if people make a simple mistake and try to back it up to early?Wouldnt it just not back up and give you a message that you have tried to back it up too early?

 

[greaseman85]

I believe if someone knows what they're doing and have malicious intent, they can bypass a warning. It's probably more difficult if not downright impossible to bypass the card getting corrupted though.

Also, nothing bad should happen if you use the Mazda Toolbox. Of course with that tool you don't get the option to copy the contents of the SD card to another or make local backups, the backup instead is stored on their servers.

At any rate, if you do accidentally corrupt the card like Toller did, your dealer should give you a new one.

 

[WxFisch]

I believe if someone knows what they're doing and have malicious intent, they can bypass a warning. It's probably more difficult if not downright impossible to bypass the card getting corrupted though.

Also, nothing bad should happen if you use the Mazda Toolbox. Of course with that tool you don't get the option to copy the contents of the SD card to another or make local backups, the backup instead is stored on their servers.

At any rate, if you do accidentally corrupt the card like Toller did, your dealer should give you a new one.

Exactly this. It is not hard to get by a warning, as an IT professional in the security space I can tell you that warnings are essentially just there for legal reasons and don't stop anything. Not to say that there are not copied Nav cards out there (a quick eBay search proves that), but by making it much more difficult Mazda is protecting their intellectual property from theft. Saying that there should just be a warning is akin to saying you should put a strongly worded note on your car that people should not steal it and leave the doors unlocked.
You also honestly should not need a backup of your Nav data, at least not locally. The card and data all technically belong to Mazda (or rather Navteq) and so it is up to them to manage it. Since they have provided this fantastically easy way of updating the Navigation on these vehicles in the first place I am not one to complain.
My mothers Kia requires a $200 firmware update at the dealer to update the maps. There is no other way. So the fact that our updates are free, semiannual, and do-it-yourself I think is a great trade off for not being able to manage the card manually.

 

[Toller]

In short, an SDHC card will not register in a normal SD card reader, only in an SDHC card reader.

I have a 4gb SDHC that seems to work properly in my card reader, so it HAS to be a SDHC reader?

BTW what size card do I need to make a copy using Mazda Toolbox?
Some people say they have made a copy of the card, and then put the original away for safekeeping. From some of the posts on this thread, it seems like that is not possible?

 

[Playthru1]

I am kinda confused on this.I bought the card before I inserted into the cx3 tried to update thru Mazda tools.
It wouldn't do anything with Mazda toolbox it was not recognized.I took the card out of the computer put it in the cx3 and drove around the block came home popped the card out of the cx3 put it back in the computer and it was recognized thru Mazda toolbox and was updated with backup files.
The card did not become corrupt when I did this.
Did you use Mazda toolbox Toller when you tried to make a backup?

 

[Toller]

I am kinda confused on this.I bought the card before I inserted into the cx3 tried to update thru Mazda tools.
It wouldn't do anything with Mazda toolbox it was not recognized.I took the card out of the computer put it in the cx3 and drove around the block came home popped the card out of the cx3 put it back in the computer and it was recognized thru Mazda toolbox and was updated with backup files.
The card did not become corrupt when I did this.
Did you use Mazda toolbox Toller when you tried to make a backup?

Yes, I used Mazda Toolbox. It didn't say anything about putting 80 miles on first. It said I had free updated for a bit more than 3 years and warned me to make a copy before updating.

 

[greaseman85]

You don't need any SD cards to make a copy, the Mazda Toolbox copies the data to their own servers, they don't let you store the data locally.

 

[st3v3cx-3]

You don't need any SD cards to make a copy, the Mazda Toolbox copies the data to their own servers, they don't let you store the data locally.

I've used Toolbox to backup my SD card data twice, before trying to update maps, and in both cases the data has been stored locally on my PC in the default directories :-

C:\Users\xxxxx\Appdata\Roaming\Mazda\Workingdir\

and

C:\Users\xxxxx\Appdata\Roaming\Mazda\Backup\

These default locations can be changed on the Folder Settings tab within the Settings option in the Toolbox application.

I presume this would allow the data to be restored to another SD card?

 

[Playthru1]

Yes, I used Mazda Toolbox. It didn't say anything about putting 80 miles on first. It said I had free updated for a bit more than 3 years and warned me to make a copy before updating.

I did the same thing you did and my card do not become corrupted.I just think you had a bad card from the start.Im glad you finally got A card that worked.

 

[jtonline]

You don't need any SD cards to make a copy, the Mazda Toolbox copies the data to their own servers, they don't let you store the data locally.

I've used Toolbox to backup my SD card data twice, before trying to update maps, and in both cases the data has been stored locally on my PC...

...I presume this would allow the data to be restored to another SD card?

Yes, the backup data is stored on the local PC. I have successfully backed up the original 8GB Mazda SD Card and restored to a 32GB SanDisk card using Mazda Toolbox.

Data is written to the original card by the car, so it, and any subsequent backups of it, become non-transferable (although I'm sure there are people who have worked out how to circumvent that protection).

 

[WxFisch]

I have a 4gb SDHC that seems to work properly in my card reader, so it HAS to be a SDHC reader?

BTW what size card do I need to make a copy using Mazda Toolbox?
Some people say they have made a copy of the card, and then put the original away for safekeeping. From some of the posts on this thread, it seems like that is not possible?

Almost all modern (read made in the last 7 or 8 years) card readers are SDHC card readers. They are generally not marketed as this to avoid consumer confusion however.

I have not made a copy of my card that came with my car. I let Mazda Toolbox make a backup when I updated the data about two months ago and left it at that. You should be fine though with a 4GB card, I cannot image that there is more data than that for the maps (though admittedly I do not know for sure.)