Temporary Files left on Hard Disk After Map Updates

trebor

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Yesterday, when trying to run Windows Update on my Surface Pro 4, which only has a 128GB hard drive, I was getting the message that there was not enough hard disk space to carry out the update. When I checked I only had a couple of GB spare. Then I remembered seeing this post on the VFR forums:

Red Leader said:
I could never understand why my laptop C drive was filling up so much! When it got down to only 10gb remaining after downloading the latest Garmin Map update to my Zumo 660 and PC I had to do something.
I always delete the old maps after an update, but still disc space was disappearing!

The problem is when you download Garmin map updates they go into a temporary folder, BUT after the update is complete these huge files are not deleted. Using the method below I recovered 60gb of disc space! What a crap system!!

The fix:
1. Press the Windows key + "R" to open the "Run" command.
2. Type in %programdata%\garmin\coreservice\downloads\map and then press "Enter".
3. Here it will list all the maps (in folders) it still has stored in temporary memory. Just have a look at the size! Right-click on a map folder you want deleted.
4. Select "Delete".
5. When prompted, confirm you want to delete the folder.
Now, the map should be in your recycle bin. If you empty it, you will gain space back on your hard drive.

(Note: you can use file explorer to go to C:\programdata\garmin\coreservice\downloads\map)

On checking I found I had about 50GB of space taken up by these files. I deleted them all and all was good :D

Bob
 
I found this a while ago when cleaning up after an update that didn't do like I expected it to. Garmin Express claimed to be downloading at somewhere over 400MB/second, which seemed a bit quick so I went looking. Lots of unannounced and uninvited archive copies of maps which were deleted without ill effect. Trebor's post correctly describes how tpo sort this under Windows: I've no idea if the Mac version of Garmin Express is equally bad mannered.
 
bumping this to the top after clearing out some crap from my laptop - many GB of unnecessary data deleted
https://www.zumouserforums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=331

I have also dug out an old Samsung laptop with a 256GB SSD. The SSD was full and the laptop unusable. I blamed Windows being bloated but found it was half full of Garmin crap. It is now functional again, if rather slow still.
 
bumping this to the top after clearing out some crap from my laptop - many GB of unnecessary data deleted
https://www.zumouserforums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=331

I have also dug out an old Samsung laptop with a 256GB SSD. The SSD was full and the laptop unusable. I blamed Windows being bloated but found it was half full of Garmin crap. It is now functional again, if rather slow still.
Windows machines are very sensitive to having enough ram/not having too many programs running at startup and in the background. 8GB of ram is really a minimum now for Windows 10 with as much stuff as possible turned off in the background. I'm running a very old Toshiba AMD chipped laptop from 2011 (one of my kids old castoffs) for general surfing and Basecamp. I stuck an extra 4GB of ram in it and upgraded the hard drive to SSD and did a clean install of win10. Its now quick enough for Youtube, Surfing and basecamp. I use a desktop machine for photo and video editing. If the laptop is only 4GB ram you'd be better running something like Linux Mint (Mate edition) and for all of the above (except basecamp which does not run on linux) it will be more than quick enough.
 
Windows machines are very sensitive to having enough ram/not having too many programs running at startup and in the background. 8GB of ram is really a minimum now for Windows 10 with as much stuff as possible turned off in the background. I'm running a very old Toshiba AMD chipped laptop from 2011 (one of my kids old castoffs) for general surfing and Basecamp. I stuck an extra 4GB of ram in it and upgraded the hard drive to SSD and did a clean install of win10. Its now quick enough for Youtube, Surfing and basecamp. I use a desktop machine for photo and video editing. If the laptop is only 4GB ram you'd be better running something like Linux Mint (Mate edition) and for all of the above (except basecamp which does not run on linux) it will be more than quick enough.

I have a more recent laptop for the heavy lifting of everyday use. This has ample memory and storage for my needs. The Samsung is now available after a purge as a back-up if the main laptop has a hissy fit to check email and a bit of web surfing.
 


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