Re: 2600 Flash Memory smaller after erase?

ryang · ‎02-20-2003

I have noticed this on a few routers recently - If I have a 16MB Flash SIMM,

and format and upload the image to it using the ROM Monitor, I get the full

space of the flash. However, if I use the erase flash command in the IOS

itself, I mysteriously lose 512K of it, for a 15872K total instead of

16384.. The show ver command still shows "16384K bytes of processor board

System flash (Read/Write)" Repeating the procedure from ROM Monitor

gave me the space back. (Slightly more cumbersome!)

I tested this with an older IOS image (12.0-4 i believe) and the IOS format

gives you all the space.

Here is a sample of the results on a router that was upgraded using the IOS

erase command:

>sh flash all

Partition Size Used Free Bank-Size State Copy Mode

1 15872K 14236K 1635K 8192K Read/Write Direct

System flash directory:

File Length Name/status

addr fcksum ccksum

1 14577976 c2600-ik9o3s3-mz.122-13.T.bin

0x40 0x751D 0x751D

[14578040 bytes used, 1674888 available, 16252928 total]

16384K bytes of processor board System flash (Read/Write)

Chip Bank Code Size Name

1 1 89A0 2048KB INTEL 28F016SA

2 1 89A0 2048KB INTEL 28F016SA

3 1 89A0 2048KB INTEL 28F016SA

4 1 89A0 2048KB INTEL 28F016SA

1 2 89A0 2048KB INTEL 28F016SA

2 2 89A0 2048KB INTEL 28F016SA

3 2 89A0 2048KB INTEL 28F016SA

4 2 89A0 2048KB INTEL 28F016SA

and another 2611 router, that was upgraded using the ROM Monitor upgrade

procedure:

Partition Size Used Free Bank-Size State Copy Mode

1 16384K 14236K 2147K 8192K Read/Write Direct

System flash directory:

File Length Name/status

addr fcksum ccksum

1 14577976 c2600-ik9o3s3-mz.122-13.T.bin

0x40 0x751D 0x751D

[14578040 bytes used, 2199176 available, 16777216 total]

16384K bytes of processor board System flash (Read/Write)

Chip Bank Code Size Name

1 1 01AD 2048KB AMD 29F016

2 1 01AD 2048KB AMD 29F016

3 1 01AD 2048KB AMD 29F016

4 1 01AD 2048KB AMD 29F016

1 2 01AD 2048KB AMD 29F016

2 2 01AD 2048KB AMD 29F016

3 2 01AD 2048KB AMD 29F016

4 2 01AD 2048KB AMD 29F016

Its not just 16MB Flash memory either, I've tested this on 8MB modules, and

end up with 7.5 megs on those too.

Is there some new feature in the later IOS's that I'm not aware of that

explains this - does this seem normal to anyone else?

Any input appreciated, this seems quite odd to me.

Thanks in advance.

Georg Pauwen · ‎02-21-2003

Hello,

afer you have erased the flash, issue the command ' squeeze flash:', that might help.

Regards,

Georg

ryang · ‎02-21-2003

Hmm.. Doesn't get me the space back, but you seem to be on the right track. If I issue this to flash memories formatted with IOS, the squeeze command works. However, on the one formatted with ROMMON that gives me all the space, i get the following error:

Router#squeeze flash:

Squeeze operation may take a while. Continue? [confirm]

first create squeeze log by erasing the entire device

%Error squeezing flash (Unknown error 0)

So is that wasted space occupied by the squeeze log then?

I've since tried this on a 3620's 16MB PCMCIA flash card, and noticed that I lose 256K of those as well after erasing...