How to install a hard drive in Denon DJ Prime 2, Prime 4 and SC6000

In this guide, we teach you how to install and set up a hard drive inside the Denon DJ Prime 2, Prime 4 and SC6000 players. This easy addition enables DJ’s to have their entire music collection installed permanently inside the players. Once installed, the hard drive means DJ’s can perform without carrying a USB or SD card. Perfect for mobile DJ’s, venues and DJ’s with large libraries!

What Tools You’ll Need

• Phillips head screwdriver
• 2.5″ SATA Hard drive (SSD or HDD)
• USB 3.0 Cable (Supplied with Denon Player)
• 4 Phillips head screws (Supplied with Denon Player)
• Computer

Which hard drive should I install?

Denon support all 2.5″ SATA hard drives, either HDD or SSD. There is no drive capacity size limitation, but for the best results we recommend using a SSD. We recommend this due to the high read/write speeds, which ensure the players remain quick and snappy when searching, loading and playing tracks.

How To Install The Hard Drive Into A Denon DJ Player

1. Turn off the player, removal all cables including power and prepare the device for turning upside down. If you have a deck saver or screen cover we recommend using them to protect the player during installation.
2. Turn the player upside down and locate the Hard Drive access bay.
3. Remove the four Phillips screws holding the bay door shut and place them in safe location.
4. Once the cover is off, locate the SATA hard drive cable.
5. Install the hard drive to the cable, ensure the cable is connected fully.
6. Once installed, use the four screws included with the manual of the Denon player and use them to mount the hard drive on the access bay door.
   
7. Once installed, replace the access door and secure it with the screws removed previously.
8. Now the hard drive is installed, turn the player back over and reconnect the power cable.
9. Turn on the player.
10. Connect the player to a computer with the blue USB-B 3.0 Cable that came with the player. For the best transfer speeds, try and use a 3.0 USB port on the computer. These usually have a blue core.
11. Click on source and then press the computer icon, this will reboot the player into computer mode.
12. The hard drive should now show on the computer as an external drive.
13. Open a disk management application on your computer and format the drive (Disk Utility on Mac, Disk Management on Windows)
14. Format the drive to FAT32 or exFAT with an MBR (Master Boot Record) style partition structure. For larger file systems (1TB and greater) we recommend formatting drives to the exFAT format.
15. Once complete, launch Denon Engine Prime and transfer Crates and Playlists to the drive just like a USB or SD card. Read more on Engine Prime and how to export tracks in this guide.
16. Close Engine Prime once complete and safely eject the drive from the PC.
17. Reboot the player into standalone mode and the hard drive, plus your music collection will now be visible for playback.

Is there a size limit for the SATA hard drive installed in a Denon player?

There is no drive capacity size limitation, just be sure the hard drive is formatted in one of the supported file system types FAT32 or exFAT. For larger file systems (1TB and greater) we recommend formatting drives to the exFAT format.

How many tracks can be exported onto the internal hard drive?

We recommend 50,000 or less for the best possible browsing experience. With larger collections, we always recommend using a SSD. Note: these are recommendations and not limitations.

Video Guide

Want to learn to DJ on Denon Engine Prime?