Pioneer DJ’s CDJ media players are also able to read music files from drives formatted with FAT32 (FAT 16 and HFS+ are also included).įAT32 works on both Windows PCs and Macs, and it’s one of the file system formats Pioneer DJ recommends when it comes to CDJ and XDJ use. However, there is one file system that both Macs and PCs can read and write to: FAT32. Macs can read NTFS thumb drives, but can’t write to them. Here’s a cheat sheet: modern Windows computers use the NTFS or exFAT system, and Macs use the HFS+ (MacOS Extended Journaled) system. There are lots of file systems out there: some are compatible only with Windows computers, some only with Macs, and some are readable by both Macs and PCs, but can only be written to by either a Mac or a PC. Formatting it lets you specify what file system you want it to use, and this is dependent on what operating system you’re using. What’s a file system and why should I care?Ī file system is a hard drive’s way of organising data. One way to troubleshoot is to make sure you’ve got the USB thumb stick formatted properly using a file system recognised by the CDJ or XDJ. Maybe you plug it into an XDJ-RX and track waveforms don’t appear as they should. But that’s not always the case: sometimes the drive can’t be read by an older CDJ. Spinning with CDJs and thumb drives is straightforward: you plug a thumb stick into a CDJ’s USB slot, and you’re all set.
