i’m using an etrex legend hcx. as far as i can see waypoints and tracks are not saved on my sd card but into some kind of internal memory. how can i read them without using mapsource?
background of the question: i’ll be in asia for a while in winter, and 1000 waypoints and 20 tracks seems not enough by far for mapping. finding a pc with usb will be no problem, i just need a way to get my information out of the device into some kind of usable file format.
greets from germany, micha
nice 
exactly what i needed.
in case anybody needs the full solution:
gpsbabel -t -w -i garmin -f usb: -o gdb -F backup.gdb
gets tracks (-t) and waypoints (-w) from input format garmin device (-i garmin) on usb (-f usb:)
and
saves as output format gdb (-o gdb) into the file backup.gdb (-F backup.gdb)
The Legend HCx will save tracks on the memory card, if you enable that option. Probably on main menu → Tracks - > Setup → Data Card Setup. So add a 2GB card, and you can easily store months worth or tracks.
Though this doesn’t work for waypoints, they are always stored on the internal memory. And yes, GPSBabel is a good option for downloading them.