Greetings from NYC,
After many years of faithful service, the hard drive on my unit is starting to go. I’m not quite ready to get rid of the unit just yet, so I went ahead purchased the recommended hard drive to replace the original one. I updated the latest firmware on the unit as recommended and at this point the unit is not connected to my lap top. The problem begins when I’m trying to format the new hard drive.
I successfully follow the steps into UTILITY MODE, the PARAMETERS knob allows me to scroll to INITIALIZATION MODE, but when I press the knob to go into FORMAT MODE nothing happens and cannot get past this point.
the hard drive trays on ALL of the 2500’s start to fail after about 2 years of heavy use (or longer for light use), this is the number one fault with these players, i use the 2500’s all the time but ONLY with a quality powered usb hub and fast Sandisk USB sticks (128GB is my favourite size). Go into the options on your players and set to boot up to the USB on each, set up your playlists with (I start with Winamp and save playlist file) then import playlist into Denon music manager, works perfectly this way and you never have to worry about hard drive tray issues.
Temporary fix with trays is to turn off unit, unscrew and slide out tray (half way is fine) then slide back in, power up and it will work for several bootups until it happens again. Transfer everything onto a 128GB Sandisk USB stick and you are on a winner. I have been using my 2500’s for many years now every week.
Hi DJMITCH,
Thanks for the info. It’s unfortunate, I’ve been a long time Denon user and own several pieces made by them with relatively no issues. I’ve recently switched to using Traktor s4, but wanted to still use my Denon system. I’ll consider your suggestion.
did we ever find out why the internals were disconnecting? is it just that he bumpy life of mobile DJ gear cause them to slide out of connection. Could a spacer be placed behind the plate to fix it?
Yes I still use my HD2500 with just the hard drive and not the PC connected. I have been using a powered USB hard drive for years, and would love to find a permanent solution for being able to use the internal drive. The process to get to the internal drive is more time consuming than the fix. I have to unrack the 2500, possibly disconnect it, and then take the plate off and remove the drive and slam it back in.
Greetings, sorry that this is 3 years later; but I still have my HD2500, and just learned of this problem by reading this thread. So far, mine has been holding up; but I guess this is my cue to prepare for the worst. Thanks for sharing. Also, does anyone know of a reliable source for the HD2500 service (not owner/user) manual? Thanks again!
I used layers of double sided foam tape (like draught excluder tape) and also layers of Velcro between the drive sled and the outer screw down cover. The spongy nature of either material type makes them perfectly good at applying pressure to the back of the drive sled.