External Hard Drives

I have tried different sizes including formatting external drives both powered and unpowered types to work with the MCX8000 to no avail. Even thumb drives once formatted will not be recognized by the MCX8000.

Any way to rectify this???

The only thing I have noticed is that ExFat isn’t really the preferred flavor. I have had several problems with it. When I use FAT32 to format my thumb drives all is well every time.

Formattare in FAT32

Externals come in NTFS Format and when i use software and change it to FAT32 the mcx8000 says unsupported drive…

Thumb drives come in FAT32 and are fine till I format them and the same thing happens Unsupported Drive…

I saw someone use an ssd which I wanna say was only 250mb. For me my music collection is 500mb that I bring to events so it’s close…

Just wondering why when I format that happens

My MCX8000 is buried under a load of paperwork (have been doing my yearly taxes :stuck_out_tongue:), but I might be able to try with an old external HD and see what happens.

Question though: are you formatting from Mac or from Windows? And what tool, if any? Another question: do you convert the partition (with a partition tool) or do you make a new format. Last question: do you use quick format or full format?

Formatting from a Windows Laptop. I will post what software I have used and yes both a partition and full format…

Formatted a 16GB (PNY) USB2.0 stick to FAT32 with the standard windows option. Added some music through Engine. Stuck it in the MCX8000 and presto! Worked fine.

I did get some external HD’s to give me problems. I tried a Buffalo 256GB, formatted with Partition Wizard (free). Got unsupported format. Then I used the only tool that worked with all USB drives and sticks: HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool. Reformatted the disk again (FAT32), added a playlist in Engine. Added the drive to the MCX8000 and presto. Correct label, all necessary information there. Opened playlist, loaded track and played it.

So, download the free tool, format your drive with it, add some music through Engine and see if it works.

Good luck

2 Likes

Okay so I have finally gotten a 1tb Seagate external to now work with the mcx8000 however I still can not access any files. It just says the drive

So it was recognized by Engine? You managed to drag crates and or playlists over? Then ejected it from the PC?

And when you put it in MCX8000 you can’t access anything?

1 Like

Exactly here is what I get for 2 different drives… An older Seagate external power and brand new (formatted to fat32) slim drive… Both are label music with a few directories and a little bit of music…

I even went as far as tantalizing the files to ensure everything is good. I doubled check the firmware and it says up to date…

So I am very perplexed

Here is what I just tried with a 1TB external slim line Toshiba HD USB 3.0:

  1. Formatted with Windows (10) format option to exFAT. Unsupported Volume in MCX
  2. Formatted with Minitool Partition Magic to exFAT. Unsupported Volume in MCX
  3. Formatted with Minitool Partition Magic to FAT32. Unsupported Volume in MCX
  4. Formatted with MacOS (High Sierra) format option to exFAT. Unsuppored Volume in MCX
  5. Formatted with HP USB Format tool to FAT32. Drive showed in MCX, with one folder. Opening the folder showed one more folder, System Volume Information.
  6. Opened Engine on (Windows 10) PC. Dragged playlist from collection window onto playlist label in device window. Tracks were copied, Database actions done and finally analysis done.
  7. Closed Engine. Properly ejected disk.
  8. Drive showed in MCX8000 with expected folder structure. Opened playlist and loaded a track which played and showed beatgrid/waveform.

So, conclusion (also based on previous tests) for me is:

  • exFAT support is shaky at best, at least for high volume external HD’s

  • FAT32 support is also shaky when using various formatting tools, with the exception of the one tool that is the go-to in all hard cases, the earlier mentioned HP tool.

  • Once the disk is properly recognized by the MCX, it can be filled from within Engine and appears to work as expected.

All in all, I hope this is something that can be improved in a future firmware version, preferably together with Engine Prime support for MCX8000. Both standard FAT32 and exFAT formatting through Windows and Mac OS standard tools should result in readable disks. While it’s good to know that if you fiddle around with types/brands of disks and various tools you may end up with a usable disk, this is hardly user-friendly behavior.

3 Likes

DJ_Vintage thank you soo much… As we speak I am formatting the drive the new Seagate 1TB with a long format in the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool…

My MCX8000 is at my mom’s house so I am going to transfer a few things and see…

Thank you so much for doing that for me…

1 Like

Wanted to say it worked tonight… Another reason to be thankful… Thank you DJ_Vintage

2 Likes

Glad to hear it and glad to help!

Have you had any issues once you do this on prime???

I want to share my experience because I lost a lot of time finding a solution.

My target: share same memory drive > 500mb from notebook and mcx8000

Solution: I buy a 1 Terabyte SDD (Sandisk SDSSDE30-1T00) and I format with Rufus Utility ( https://rufus.ie/ ) FAT 32 MBR with these settings

After this, I can use the same HD 1T from the controller stand-alone and PC. I hope this help someone