Idiots question about drive sizes for CDJ2000 Nexus?

Following the purchase of the CDJ2000 Nexus, I'm amazed how secretive Pioneer are about the USB drives part of the decks! Nothing in the manual, just users asking the questions on the web.

Can anyone clarify the factual situation... Is there a limit to the size of a USB stick that can be plugged in? If I plug a 16GB it works, If I plug the same brand USB 32GB the drive is not recognized?

I've heard rumours that all USB drives must be formatted in FAT32. If I do this would the 32GB drive be recognized?

Also, does this theory apply to external USB hard drives, maybe 1TB in size.

Is FAT32 available for a drive so big, Can it be done through Windows 10?

Why does Pioneer not have these basic answers within the manual?

Ideally, I'd like to have access to ALL my music files, without having the laptop with me all the time. As all the tracks are on my 1TB drive I'd like to plug this in to the CDJ and scroll through the tracks, and not have to make playlists. Is this possible?

Cheers

SoulVibesradio Jfsn January 03, 2017 16:56 Answered

Official comment

The information you're looking for is on page 6 of the user manual.

No, there is no limit to the size of the drive. If there were a limit, it would be included in the manual where the other limitations are listed.
Yes, the manual clearly states that you must format your drives FAT or HFS+ and that NTFS is not supported.
Yes, all drive sizes.
Yes, you can do this in Windows 10. A quick Google search will help you find out how.
Yes, it is possible, but you are losing most of the functionality of the product.

Mark Gallo January 03, 2017 17:10

Post is closed for comments.

Date Votes

4 comments

you can use externals, I have a 512gb formatted HFS+ from Mac and have no issues, you can also format FAT/FAT32 by using the HP format utility for pc

you don't have to make playlists, you can either drag all your files onto the external and browse "folder" view on CDJ but no waves or info will really be available and you cannot type in a song to search. Better bet would be to drag them into Rekordbox and then organize and export the entire collection if you don't want to use playlists

BriChi January 03, 2017 17:00 0 votes

This is a great question/post, as it's brought up a lot.

I have used a 512GB flash drive just fine, formatted FAT32 via Mac OS. If memory serves me correctly, Windows cannot format drives and partitions larger than 32GB in FAT32. Users take advantage of third party options, like this or this, for example. The reason its probably not in the manual is that this is an OS specific issue on their end, not Pioneer's. That said, it wouldn't hurt to have a small highlight in the manual about this caveat.

One important thing is to make sure you get the fastest, highest-rated performance drive, don't skimp on cost. A common complaint around the forum is speed and read/write issues and 99.9% of the time, the culprit is a dated or low-end drive.

All the above applies to using external drives as well. I personally use a Samsung 512GB SSD drive and have used the same one for the past couple of years with no issues.

lostnthesound January 03, 2017 17:18 0 votes

Thanks for the replies. They all answer my questions. Thanks.

However, just as a moan, it seems strange that they build this all singing and dancing unit, and then rely on a 3rd party software app to allow FAT32 formatting of large drives for PC users. Would have been nice to have an app available for download from the Pioneer site. Just a simple statement such as..."Oh by the way some OS do not format FAT32 under PC, so here's a little app we've got that will get you up and running immediately without having to search the web for other 3rd party apps!!!" Just saying!

Anyway. I'll get the drives sorted and begin the task of Beat Gridding!

Thanks

SoulVibesradio Jfsn January 03, 2017 17:46 0 votes