DJ CONTENT

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

Denon DJ Harddrive
DJ CONTENT

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.

Install Hard Drive In Denon DJ

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.
    SSD installed to Prime 4
  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?

Comment

Join The Discussion

6 Comments
  1. Chris

    I just got the prime 4 all my music is on the external drive and I have virtual dj. How can I upload my music from the external drive to the prime4

    Reply
    • Jamie Hartley

      You will need to either plug your external drive directly into the prime 4 with the USB cable. Or you can use a separate USB drive to export the music through Engine DJ on your laptop to that drive ready to plug in and use. If you want to use internal storage on the Prime 4 then you will need to install a SATA drive and use computer mode to transfer the songs over. We have a tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCL8-YQySz4&t=272s

      Reply
  2. Barney

    I’m upgrading to a MacBook with only usb c ports would I need to buy a new cable to transfer playlists to my internal ssd on my prime 2 as the blue cable supplied will no longer fit.

    Reply
    • Jamie Hartley

      You can simply buy an adaptor that takes USB A to USB C

      Reply
  3. Roberto L Hern

    Its there a way to install a sound effect in my Denon prime 4

    Reply
    • Holland

      There’s no in-built sampler sadly! We have seen people connect iPad’s and iPhones with a AUX cable though which is a cool solution!

      Reply

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