Format Nav Directories

[smbass]

>798ci SI, this was on the 6.300 update . under steup page what does this do?

[Wayne P.]

That deletes your waypoint/tracks/routes library, just uses the term that your computer has for formatting a hard drive or other memory devices.

[smbass]

for the SD card? not the Nav. map chip i hope? so it will reformat your SD card like on PC. what will happen if both card slots have chips in them will it recognize the memory card

[Bryanmc57]

I would assume it would just be for the unit's memory. I always use the write protect lock on my map cards so nothing can happen to the data and nothing can be written to them.

Not sure why 'Bird would choose to change the term to from "delete" to "format" . Deleting data on a computer and formatting are two different things.

[Wayne P.]

It's quite simple, read the title of the function.

[Bryanmc57]

Not to sound disagreeable Wayne, but you can't format a directory on a computer as you stated in your example. You can format a storage device, but a directory is merely a location identifier (for lack of a better term). The title of the function is "format nav directories". If what they are doing is deleting the nav data (which is what they have called it for years) why the sudden change? It's not nerely as accurate a term as the previous term was.

[smbass]

well when i got unit weeks before HD798 it had delete nav data, then when i did 5.840 it went away had to use WPM to delete. now with 6.300 this came back with this "tag". sounded odd myself is why i asked

[Bryanmc57]

I talked to someone a 'Bird. The two commands accomplish the same thing different ways. The [delete] command just deletes the data, the [format] command deletes the data by formatting the internal storage media (it has no effect on any SD cards in the slots).

[BrownTrout]

If the only thing stored on the HB internal drive is waypoints, routes and tracks, then it would make no difference to the angler whether they delete all Nav data or re-format the drive. From the angler's point of view, the stuff is gone and they can then upload new stuff. From the HB technicians point of view, however, if this drive is similar to a normal PC-type hard drive, reformatting the drive not only deletes all the data but also cleans up the pointers, indexes, et al which would provide more available space for data to be stored.

[Bryanmc57]

reformatting the drive not only deletes all the data but also cleans up the pointers, indexes, et al which would provide more available space for data to be stored.

Exactly... which is why it should probably be the only choice. If you're going to delete all the data, why not clean the media as well?

[SwampDonky]

There any way to undo that? I accidentally hit “format nav directory” and just smoked about 1,000 waypoints

[Wayne P.]

There any way to undo that? I accidentally hit “format nav directory” and just smoked about 1,000 waypoints

No, they are gone.

[Fins]

Wow, I hope you had that backed up. Look for a matrix folder in the root of any SD cards you may have backed up to.
If you find one, probably best to import it into HumminbirdPC. There you can see the waypoints and tracks and display them in Google Earth.
You can also use that matrix folder to re-import that data back onto your unit.