I have installed Engine Prime and imported all my music. I must say the speed is top class when it comes to analyzing… well done Denon DJ.
The only issue I have, is when a connect my “WD My Passport (2TB) USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive” which is formatted to FAT32, Engine Prime does not show the drive.
I have seen on the Engine Prime Frequently Asked Questions
"Help! My external drive doesn’t show up in the devices panel. (Windows)
This may happen when Windows (and therefore Engine Prime) detects an external drive as an internal drive. This can happen if an internal SATA drive is placed in a 3rd party USB enclosure. We do not support these drives and recommend you do not use them, as Windows is unable to safely eject the drives."
The part I don’t understand about the above statement is "We do not support these drives and recommend you do not use them, as Windows is unable to safely eject the drives" because I have not problem ejecting the drive using the safely remove hardware feature.
Can anyone point me in the right direction on fixing this issue or recommend a large format hard drive 2TB that Engine Prime will work with.
The FAQ advice which you’ve mentioned there, is referring to internal drives, the bare metal “naked” drives which you might bolt into a desktop PC.
Some people buy those internal drives, and then buy their choice of plastic casing or “shell” to encase the drive inside. Those sort of combinations may not be recognised correctly.
So, the good news is, that your WD Passport drive is built by WD to be exclusively an external drive.
Also in the FAQ’s if mentions:
“The SC5000 supports media formatted in FAT32 and exFAT with an MBR (Master Boot Record) style partition structure.”
Which USB port on the SC5000 are you plugging the drive into ?
The reason for me asking is that the USB 3 drives are quite “thirsty” for power - indeed as a usb 3 device, they can ask for 900ma power from a USB port.
The USB port on the front of the SC5000 is USB 2 (500 ma). The 2 x USB ports on the rear of the SC5000 are USB3.0 (900 ma) so have enough current available to spin up even a thirsty drive.
None at the moment.
Should have my SC5000x2 & X1800 Monday. I’m trying to get my hard drive ready for the big day:heart_eyes:. So I have all my collection & playlists imported / analyzed. Just need to get them onto the hard drive now… Going to try a USB Stick later and see if that works.
Just a one question do the SC5000’s format a drive, like the old 5500?
Just out of interest, which version of Windows are you using? Also, are you plugging the hard drive directly into the computer or going via a USB hub? Any other USB devices plugged in to other USB ports?
Also, have you checked your BIOS and other drivers to make sure that your computer USB ports are as unto date driver wise, as possible?
Using Windows 10 and plugging into USB3 port on an ASUS gaming laptop with everything updated.
I have tried two different external hard drives 1TB and 4TB and they are not seen by Engine Prime. I tried a USB stick and everything is as it should be. As in the stick appears in the device pane with the Collection, Playlist & History folders.
I think the problem is windows, it is detecting an external drive as an internal drive. Can this be changed?
Hopefully one of the tech’s can get to the bottom of this, because from the reviews and videos on-line they says the SC5000 can handle any size hard drive which is why i switched to the Prime System. If Engine Prime can’t handle these drives that will be a problem for me, as I am a mobile jock and need to have a large collection with me at all times.
Just for the fun of it, I put Engine Prime onto my OLD iMac and the external Hard Drive worked Perfect. I think Denon DJ needs to add the support for PC and external Hard Drivers.
I take back the “works fine”!! Well at least the HD works on a mac👍 And I know it’s an old iMac but sweet baby jaysus 7 hours cooking on the mac and only 10,000 songs ankyzed.
My PC had my whole collection cooked in 2 hrs.
If the Engine Prime PC software won’t recognise my HD on a PC then I’ve just wasted a lot of money. I just payed over €5000 for paper weights and I know you guys will say “only bring what you need to a gig” on a memory stick, but I’m a Mobile DJ and people ask for all sorts. IF I can’t play it and I have it in my collection, then I’m letting them down.
On / In the promo vids Denon DJ said no LIMIT to the HD capacity!! Then why is ENGINE PRIME stopping this on a PC.
Personally, I don’t think this is a drive capacity/size issue, as I’ve had a 4tb drive in the SC5000.
I would suspect it’s either that it’s a USB3.0 drive but plugged into the front port, which is USB 2.0 , or some sort of formatting (master boot record related). The other possibility is the drive has some sort of hidden bloatware, encryption, splash screen, dual drive letters type of boot, which is fouling up the recognition.
It would be worth checking the website of the drive manufacturer as they often offer a “drive tools utilities removal software” (or something similar). Such tools offer “pimping” of the drive such as performance versus drive noise, and performance versus eco power management etc, but can get in the way of communication.
I’d agree100% with you. But when the drive is seen by the mac engine prime software and not by pc engine prime software I think it’s more then a format issue. Plus I’m not the only person have this problem.
Plus I also just noticed, if I try and update my iTunes into the mac version it only brings in half/some of my playlists. Whereas on the pc version every track is shown. Call me crazy but I think the software might have a few glitches.
Hopefully version 1.2 will fix some of this issues.
I agree that Engine does not work with external harddrives on Windows very well. I also don’t understand Denon’s take on ejecting the harddrive from Windows not being reliable as I’ve been using third party enclosures for years without issue.
What I did was export some music files straight to the drive using Window’s Explorer and plugged the drive into the SC5000 ( You must use the rear ports as the front does not provide enough power ). The decks were still able to read and analyze the files. This is not an ideal solution but in a pinch it is doable. I’ve since used usb sticks and the software works fine.
Denon should revisit the harddrive topic as they are definitely missing something.
What I’ve done is brought my old iMac out of retirement and loaded the hard drive up with my full collection until something is sorted (Took around 4 days to load. Poor OLD iMac).
I’m just going to use USB sticks for the time been with Windows.
Hi @DJ_Boothe please read carefully the complaints…
It is not related to whether the external HD is working on the SC5000 player it is that the external HD is not regornized on in Engine Prime on a Windows PC.
I have the same issue my external Toshiba 500Gb USB 2.0 drive is not showing up in Engine Prime on my Windows PC.
To be fair, there has been discussion of both Hard drive to Windows connection and Hard drive to SC5000 connection.
A quick Google for “windows wont recognize my external hard drive” shows that it’s a re-occuring issue for Windows/Microsoft.
There are a few handy hints showing in the Google results, including how some more power thirsty drives might need external power (not just usb power), or may need a USB dual power cable to enable the drive to pull power from two USB ports to power up the drive. Many other solutions show themselves.
Obviously if external drives are not showing to windows when the drive is plugged into a windows PC, that’s not something which Denon could resolve - thats more a Microsoft thing. If however, an external hard drive is showing itself to Windows, but not presenting itself to the SC5000 when plugged into one, that’s something to mention here.
Windows shows the external drive, in explorer we see the drive and we can access the drive like a normal internal/external drive, but it doesn’t show up in Engine Prime.
This statement was also made by @Jayos 2 weeks ago and this is also what I just wrote in my last post [quote=“polderboy, post:17, topic:4184”]
the external HD is not regornized on in Engine Prime on a Windows PC.
I have the same issue my external Toshiba 500Gb USB 2.0 drive is not showing up in Engine Prime on my Windows PC.
[/quote]
So not sure why you refer back to windows issues, it is not a Windows issue it is a Engine Prime issue.
If you prefer we make a seperate topic on this issue please let me know then I will create it.
We really need to be able to use a external HDD in Engine Prime on a windows PC.