USB Format Issues recently

Were your previous drives Transcend Drives as well?

When you're formatting, are you formatting FAT as a GUID Partition Table or Master Boot Record?

This is the first Transcend drive (based on a recommendation I found on this forum) but it also happened with a Seagate drive - anything I tried to format last week would look like it was formatted correctly but then didn't work in the CDJ and I've never had that before.  I'm using a format program called "Macrorit Disk Partition Expert" but I just click "format FAT32" - I'm not sure about GUID or BOOT RECORD.  Since it's a large storage drive I think I'd need a third party format program to make it FAT32 - I don't think windows can format because of size.  If there's a better program to use I'd have not issue acquiring it!  Any help is welcomed!!!

Recent windows versions have placed a 32GB limit on FAT32 formatted drives in order to further NTFS. I'm not sure what version of Windows you're using, but with Vista and Win7, here's what you can do to bypass the 32GB limit (if using a more recent build of Windows, locate the cmd prompt or "run"):

In Windows Vista and Windows 7, go to > Start, type > Run in the search field, and launch it. Type > cmd into the text field and click > OK.

Enter the following command at the prompt: format /FS:FAT32 X:

Replace the letter X with the drive letter for the external device you wish to format and hit > Enter.

That’s it! 

Unfortunately, all 3 of our office computers were upgraded to Windows 10.  We used a program called ComuApps SwissKnife before Windows 10 and it worked like a charm... but no longer works with Windows 10.  Any ideas for Windows 10 users???

You can still access the command prompt in Windows 10:

Press the “Win + R” key to open RUN dialog box. Then use the directions I referenced above.

Hey!  After a few mis-types, it looks like I got it going!  It's formatting now... 0% complete so I'll be patient... if this works I'll owe ya one!

I'm hoping for the best. :-) And don't worry if it seems slow with formatting, that's normal.

Hey!  You've been so helpful.  So I let it format last night - took 4 hours and then gave me a "volume too large" error.  :(  The disk is now wiped clean but it doesn't appear to have worked. SO, still searching for a solution.  What do all the other CDJ users do (if you're not using a laptop)?

Dammit. That's strange, this should've "unhinged" the limitation on the drive. Must be a Win10 thing I suppose–I format on MacOS and had no issues, that's why I'm a bit limited with Win10 direction.

I'll try and find another alternative. In the meantime, try Google. I'm certain there are others who have sought to format FAT32 on a flash drive with a Windows machine while bypassing the limitation.

Cheers.

Hey lostinthesound - you have been a tremendous help!  I appreciate your time and assistance!!!  This morning I downloaded something called "SmartDisk FAT32 Tool" and after formatting 3-4 time, the CDJ read the external hard drive!  I'm gonna try another hard drive to see if this is my solution!