Failed to eject properly

Engine DJ Hardware Standalone Controllers
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1

Literally every single time I’ve ever connected my Prime to to my windows ThinkPad it has told me that it has been unable to be ejected properly…

Then I get the warning on the screen when I switch over to standalone mode that it was not ejected properly…

I use the eject button…

How else am I supposed to do this if doing the thing on the screen is wrong?

Is literally everyone else having the same stupid issue? This is my second unit and both of them have done the same thing every single time I try to disconnect from the computer…

It doesn’t really affect the playability of my unit. All the songs are still there and load properly it’s just annoying a ■■■■ to be told you’re doing something wrong every single time when you know for a fact you’re following the directions and doing it right…

Why does it say this every ■■■■■■■ time?

2

When it is connected to a computer via usb cable and in computer mode - the eject button does nothing. You need to eject Your device in windows / mac by finding Your USB/SD on the computers display and right click on it. From the list You will see, select EJECT. Wait a moment after this. Sometimes there will be a message, that the device is safe to remove. Then unplug the usb cable connecting prime with a computer and restart the unit in normal mode. There should be no more error message.

3

I’ve tried using the eject button in the Denon software

I’ve tried using the eject button in my windows software

Literally no matter what the ■■■■ I do I get this same error every single time.

And I had the same error on the first one that I had to send back because of the bad up fader…

And when I tried to connect to my friends Prime 4 I got the same error on that device as well.

So if anybody’s not getting this error I’m ■■■■■■■ amazed.

4

This error could be related to an error in data base that is on your prime 2’s SSD. Did You tried to reformat that drive in ExFat and run a fresh data base on it maybe?

5

I’ve completely formatted the drive in the prime2, & the drive in my pc… Reinstalled Engine prime Rebuilt my music database and it still happens EVERY SINGLE TIME

6

Formatted, but what file system is there? How big is the library on that drive?

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  1. when you eject the drive on windows, do you get the prompt that the “drive is now safe to be unplugged”
  2. if you have multiple drives in the prime 2 e.g SD card, USB and sata SSD you may need to eject each one individually
  3. what happens if instead of ejecting you shutdown the computer completely before switching to standalone?
8

Obviously it’s formatted in exfat/fat32 otherwise the Prime 2 won’t even see the drive…

And since I can only make one response right now I’m also going to address the person below you. I’ve never tried shutting down the computer instead of ejecting the drive so that’ll be my next experiment…

Every once in a great while whenever I plug the Prime in Windows will tell me that the drive has errors and it needs to be scanned… But that only happens every once in awhile.

I should also note that it does not matter whether I hit eject on the computer first or if I tell the prime to return to standalone mode first. No matter which one I do I always get the air that it was not ejected properly on both, the computer and the prime…

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So it seems that Your computer is not ejecting the drive as it should. Also those errors with scanning drives are not something that should be happening and can be related. I would start looking from that. Maybe a windows repair from the windows installer would help…?

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To be sure. Which Windows version do you use?

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I also wonder if he can plug in and eject a normal usb stick on the computer.

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I literally only have this problem when it comes to the hard drive that’s installed in the prime2. Anytime I’m using an SD card or flash card the computer has no problem ejecting it at all…

So it doesn’t matter if I use the eject button to the Denon engine software or the windows eject button I get this air every single time no matter what…

As far as the whole drive scanning thing it only does that every once in a great while and not very often…

I’m looking at just getting a whole new hard drive for the prime and seeing if that fixes the problem.

Because the hard drive that’s in it, I used to have it in one of those plastic USB 3.0 cases and I never had a problem with it when it was in that case but then again it was still formatted in NTFS when it was in that case.

I only have this weird eject problem since formatting it to FAT32 and putting it into the prime…

13

…but you shouldn’t just ignore that message. Even if you only saw it once, it still needs checking.

Scan the drive.

14

You may want to consider an SSD if the budget allows.

Did you test the shutting down method?

15

I did try shutting the laptop down last night while the prime unit was still in computer mode and as soon as the laptop shut down the prime2 gave me the same error message that it was not ejected properly…

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Hey @DJ_Lys_2 Sorry to hear you’re running into some issues. It seems you have not found a solution to this yet. We’re happy to take a look if you feel it’s a hardware issue. Feel free to DM me and I can connect you to a technical support agent.

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I’m not sure if it’s a hardware issue or a software issue or if engine just doesn’t like my ThinkPad t440s… I know it’s not the most powerful laptop in the world but, engine isn’t exactly the most demanding DJ software in the world so I thought that it would work just fine since serato DJ and rekordbox run on my system with no problem… I formatted my computer this week and reinstalled a fresh copy of Windows and I’m rebuilding my media library literally right now while I’m typing this response…

I’m also going to pull my hard drive from my prime unit tonight and do a complete format on it the long way the hard way and make sure it’s down to just one partition…

For some reason, something (either windows or engine) keeps making a backup partition on there and then every time I plug in my prime it sees the backup partition before the main partition and keeps telling me that it’s not going to work and this that and the other. (Obviously referring to the backup partition and not the main partition.)

Not exactly sure how I’m getting two partitions when I’m not trying to but I’m going to try to take care of that issue first, because I have a feeling that whenever I’m ejecting the prime that it’s ejecting okay but the backup partition is not and that might be why I’m getting that notification.

Not exactly sure how a backup partition was made without me actually physically partitioning the drive but I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that the hard drive that’s in there is just one big partition and not multiples…

If I’m still having issues tomorrow then I’ll definitely send you a message. I appreciate you reaching out…

(Edit)

I am also going to be updating my prime two firmware version 1.6.2 while I’m at it so I’ll be running the freshest newest versions of the firmware and the engine software on the laptop…

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18

Be sure to make that partition in ExFat file system. If Your library grows bigger, than Fat32 file size limit (4GB), will cause another issue.

19

So, After figuring out there was a system restore file in its own partition on the hdd, I removed it from my prime2, and put it in one of those plastic USB 3.0 cases. Hooked it up to my freshly reformatted computer, and ran the disc partition tool from Windows 10. Removed all of the partitions from the drive. Set one partition for the maximum amount of space at the default cluster size in eXfat. Allowed the program to run for a while because it is a 500 gig hdd. Then assigned the drive space it’s own custom letter. (I skipped the step the first time and windows wouldn’t see the drive as any letter at all. So I went back and assigned a custom letter and then Windows was able to see the drive.)

Once Windows was able to recognize the drive (P:) I put it back into the Prime2 Then I went to Denon’s website and installed the latest window driver…

(Don’t know from my earlier posts and replies that I had already recently redid my entire computer. From Windows on up. So I was already running the latest edition of engine prime, and had just updated the firmware in my Prime2 unit.)

So, with everything new, and up to date. & The drive properly partitioned and formatted, I booted the Prime2 into “Computer Mode” and held my breath…

I loaded up EnginePrime on the ol’ ThinkPad. Once it was fully loaded, I plugged in the USB. After about 8 to 10 seconds that felt like a half hour, the Prime2 500G hardrive showed up in the device panel under my Dropbox in the EnginePrime software… Was this success? Dare I dream?..

It works flawlessly…

So I was able to open up the sync manager and select all of my crates and sync them over to the Prime2.

That took a while…

When I eject, (With Engine or the 🪟 eject button, I tried em both, and) both ways work now.

I used it tonight in my twitch stream and, Even though I can’t really prove it I believe that the songs are even loading faster now too…

I obviously didn’t even try to measure this because why would I even think to measure that so I have no logical reason for actually believing that they’re loading faster. But it definitely felt like it…

Who would have thought that a system restore point would be left on a drive after it’s been reformatted multiple times…

Looks like the format option wasn’t formatting the entire drive but just the accessible portion for all these years. (I’ve had to drive for at least four or five years now, and I’ve never made a Windows restore point.).

So, hopefully if anybody else is having the same issue, they’ll think to check their drive with the windows partition tool to make sure there’s not a partition you don’t normally see loading up, with some restore point or something in it that’s keeping it from formatting away…

If this helps solve even one other person from having the same headache I went through, it was worth it…

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20

Great that You managed to work it out, and thanks for sharing of the whole process here with us. For sure it will be helpful for others. Happy mixing!

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