Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming MC200 2TB SSD SATA Upgrade Advice

Hi all,

I’ve recently purchased an MC200, which currently has a 1TB mechanical HDD installed (this could be 10 to 15 years old and maybe coming to the end of its life). I’m planning to upgrade it to a 2TB SSD, most likely a SanDisk 2TB drive.

My intention is to use Macrium Reflect to clone the existing HDD directly to the SSD. Since I don’t have sufficient storage space available for a disk image, I plan to connect both drives to my laptop using USB-to-SATA adapters and perform a direct disk-to-disk clone.

As the replacement drive has a larger capacity, is there anything specific I need to do during or after the cloning process to ensure the MC200 recognises and utilises the full 2TB capacity of the SSD? For example, will I need to resize the partition(s) manually, or should Macrium Reflect handle this automatically?

The MC200 will be integrated into my Meridian system, which currently comprises DSP5200.2 speakers, an AC200, an MSR+, and a laptop as the digital source, which shall be replaced by the MC200 and iPad.

Any advice or recommendations from those who have carried out a similar upgrade would be greatly appreciated, as I don't wish to lose any of the music I have stored on the existing drive.

Many thanks.

Hi,

The MC200 runs a cut-down version of Linux. Make sure whatever cloning software you choose can handle this.

I have successfully cloned and upgraded MC200s to use larger disks, so it isn't too difficult, provided you know what you're doing.

I've not personally used Macrium Reflect, so I can't comment on whether it will do the job.

Basically, the process is to duplicate the disk (as-is), then expand the partition.

Provided you don't do anything to the original disk, that will be your backup until the process is complete.

Good luck,

Steve

It’s good to know there are still people using the MC200.

I tried to change a setting on mine today, but the Meridian Control app is no longer able to open the configuration page where it used to be possible to adjust parameters such as fixed or variable analog pre-out and other settings.

I changed the MC200 to a different router port, power-cycled it, but the Meridian Control app always shows the same error whenever I try to open the configuration page:

“Unable to load settings. Please check your network configuration and try again.”

Interestingly, I can still browse and play music through the Sooloos app, but for some reason the Device Configuration section has suddenly become inaccessible.

Does anyone have an alternative suggestion for configuring the MC200?

Mine is running the following software version: Version 2.535, Build 1576.

Thanks for your help.

An external HDD/SSD duplicator saves attempting to clone a disk on your Mac/PC.

Have you tried entering the IP Address directly into a browser? I don't run a MC200, but I know that doing it for an endpoint works.

I tried entering the IP address directly into a browser, but unfortunately it didn’t work.

Do you know if there’s any way to perform a factory reset or reset the MC200? I’m wondering if that might help resolve the issue.

Hi everyone,

I'm posting an update regarding the Media Core 200 Device Configuration issue.

After some investigation, I'm beginning to suspect that the MC200's legacy web-based configuration interface may no longer be fully compatible with modern browsers and WebKit versions. The same issue appears to affect the Meridian app.

I'm trying to configure my MC200 (Version 2.535, Build 1576) using Meridian app on an iPhone 14 Pro running the latest iOS, as well as on a MacBook Pro M1 running the latest macOS. In both cases, Meridian app reports:

"Unable to load settings. Please check your network configuration and try again."

I verified that the MC200 is reachable on the network and serving its web content correctly. The WebClient HTML page, webclient.nocache.js, messaging.js and other related files can all be retrieved successfully via HTTP.

Interestingly, when I tried accessing the MC200 from an older iPhone running an older version of iOS, I was able to open the Sooloos WebClient interface without any issues. However, I could not find a way to access the device configuration settings from there.

This makes me wonder whether the configuration pages rely on legacy browser functionality that is no longer supported by current versions of iOS/macOS and the Meridian app.

Does anyone know of an alternative way to access the MC200 configuration settings?

Specifically, I would like to:

1. Change the digital audio output resolution/settings.
2. Change the analog pre-outs from Fixed to Variable output.

Has anyone found another method to access these settings, such as legacy software, a direct configuration URL, a service menu, a protocol command, or any other workaround?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Apologies, it seems I've been a bit quiet recently. I have just ordered a 2TB SanDisk SATA SSD, which should fit the 2.5-inch drive bracket. The drive is due to arrive this Thursday, and my plan is to clone the existing mechanical HDD to the SSD. As Steve advised, I will keep the original HDD as a backup.

In the meantime, I am not using the MC200, as the current HDD is likely between 10 and 15 years old. Given its age, there is a risk of failure, which could result in the loss of both the operating system and the music library.

I have already tested the MC200 using my laptop via its IP address, and everything appears to be working correctly. I have also used an old iPad that I originally bought for the children nearly 15 years ago, and I am able to access and play all of the music that came with the MC200 without any issues.

JorgeQ, once I have installed the cloned SSD in the MC200, I will check the software version and review any configurations that may have been set up by the previous owner, which are currently allowing me to use the unit.

I believe the iPad is a very early model and has not received updates for many years, as Apple no longer supports it.

I use the Meridian Device Manager program (version 37) on a Surface Pro 4 to set up Sooloos items. Coincidentally, I just received a used MS600 and MC200 the other day and was able to change the settings for them this way. In my case, getting rid of static IP.

Hi,

The evening before last, I used Macrium Reflect on my laptop to clone the 1TB mechanical HDD from my MC200 onto a 2TB SanDisk SSD. When I returned home from work yesterday evening, the cloning process had completed successfully, so I installed the SSD into the MC200.

After powering up the MC200, everything worked perfectly. I was able to access my music library from my iPad without any issues, and the system felt noticeably more responsive, presumably due to the faster access speeds of the SSD.

I then accessed the MC200 from my laptop using its IP address to check the drive capacity. To my surprise, the drive was reported as 1TB rather than the expected 2TB.

As the MC200 is Linux-based, is there a configuration step or setting required for it to recognise and use the full 2TB capacity of the SSD?

If not, I'm wondering whether the issue lies with the cloning process. Macrium Reflect offers a Forensic Sector Copy mode, which creates an exact sector-by-sector copy of the source drive, including unused sectors and deleted data. Would using this mode make any difference, or is there another cloning application that would produce a clone that the MC200 recognises as a full 2TB drive?

One point worth mentioning is that, during the cloning setup, Macrium Reflect correctly identified the destination SanDisk SSD as a 2TB drive. In the graphical cloning interface, the partitions from the 1TB source drive were copied across exactly as expected, but the remaining space on the destination drive was left unallocated. Macrium did not offer an option to expand the final partition to fill the additional space, so I assumed the Linux-based MC200 would automatically recognise and make use of the remaining capacity after installation.

To summarise, the cloned SSD works perfectly, but only as a 1TB drive. I would be very grateful for any advice on whether this can be resolved by reconfiguring the existing installation, expanding the partition, or by repeating the cloning process using different settings or alternative software.

Many thanks.

Hi,

I suspect the cloning process has cloned the partition 'as is'. That means that it will be a 1Tb partition.

You will need to use Linux tools to expand the partition to utilise all the remaining space.

As you can't remotely login to the Linux interface, you will need to do this by connecting the drive as a slave to a computer and using suitable tools.

Good luck. Expansion is a lot easier than shrinking the partition!

Cheers,

Steve

I think you’ve successfully made an exact copy of what you already had before but what you now need to do is use one of the disc management tools to extend the (1TB) partition into the “unallocated” 1TB of the new drive.

Bearing in mind I’m a complete novice but with a healthy willingness to have a go, it’s a long time since I did this myself and some of these disc management tools do require an understanding of computer gobbledegook… I’m hopefully that somebody clever will be along shortly to recommend a user friendly tool that’ll do this without too much hassle.

Having said that you can’t break it and could just format and start over if you got it badly wrong, you’ve still got the original disk to clone again, I hope!

Best wishes

Richard

I’ve used Diskgenius with success. I could even access and copy the songs with it