Cisco 2950 Password Recovery Procedure Step-by-Step Procedure

Cisco 2950 Password Recovery Procedure Step-by-Step Procedure To recover a password on a Cisco switch, you will have to connect to the co...

Cisco 2950 Password Recovery Procedure
Step-by-Step Procedure

To recover a password on a Cisco switch, you will have to connect to the console port of the Cisco switch with following steps:

1. Attach a terminal(HyperTerminal) to the console port of the switch. Use the following terminal settings:
Bits per second (baud): 9600 baud
Data bits: 8 bits
Parity: None
Stop bits: 1 bit
Flow Control: Xon/Xoff

2. Unplug the power cable.

3. Hold down the mode button located on the left side of the front panel, reconnect the power cable to the switch & bring it to the switch: prompt: by releasing the Mode button after approximately 5 seconds when the Status (STAT) LED goes out. (When you release the Mode button, the SYST LED blinks amber).

The following instructions appear:
The system has been interrupted prior to initializing the flash filesystem. The following commands will initialize the flash filesystem, and finish loading the operating system software:
flash_init
load_helper
boot
switch:

4.Issue the flash_init command.
switch: flash_init
5. Issue the load_helper command.

switch: load_helper
6.Issue the dir flash: command.

switch: dir flash:
7. Type rename flash:config.text flash:config.old to rename the configuration file.

switch: rename flash:config.text flash:config.old
8.Issue the boot command to boot the system.

switch: boot
9.Enter "n" at the prompt to start the Setup program.

--- System Configuration Dialog ---
At any point you may enter a question mark '?' for help. Use ctrl-c to abort configuration dialog at any prompt. Default settings are in square brackets '[]'. Continue with configuration dialog? [yes/no]: n

!--- Press Return or Enter.
Switch>
!--- The Switch> prompt is displayed.

10. At the switch prompt type en to enter enable mode.

Switch>en
Switch#

11. Type rename flash:config.old flash:config.text to rename the configuration file with its original name.

Switch#rename flash:config.old flash:config.text
Destination filename [config.text]
Switch#

12. Copy the configuration file into memory:
Switch#copy flash:config.text system:running-config
13. Change the password:

Switch#configure terminal
Switch(config)#no enable secret
Switch(config)#enable secret Cisco
Switch(config)#end

14. Write the running configuration to the configuration file with the write memory command:

Switch#write memory
Building configuration...
[OK] Switch#