Cat6K disk0 flash card problem

[Sam Preston]

Hello,

I have several Cisco Catalyst 6500 with Sup720/MSFC3, each using a 1 GB PC Flash Card for storing the IOS image.

One of my flash cards only works within the slot disk1 but not within disk0

I have tried on different 6500s and always got same results : the card can be read in disk1 but not in disk0

See below the output (first output with the card in disk0, second output with the card in disk1) :

SWITCH1#dir disk0:

%Error opening disk0:/ (No such device)

SWITCH1#dir disk1:

Directory of disk1:/

No files in directory

1014235136 bytes total (1014235136 bytes free)

Note that :

1) When I issue the command "dir disk0:", I need to wait around 10 seconds before getting the ouput from the switch. When there is no card at all in the slot, I get the answer immediately.

2) I have been able to read other cards from disk0 so this one is working.

3) When the card is in disk1, not only can I can read it but also boot from an image that finds itself on it.

4) Other cards work correctly either in disk0 or in disk1

I initially thought that the flash card was faulty, but since I can read it in disk1, I really don't know...

Have any of you already encountered such strange problems please ? Is there a difference in the hardware of disk0 and disk1 ?

Thanks a lot for your help !

Sam.

[Jonathancert_2]

I had a similiar problem with a flash card.  I re-formatted it and the problem went away.

Jonathan,

[Sam Preston]

Thanks Jonathan.

I had also tried to re-format it but I still have the problem. I re-formatted the card because I had heard of people who were able to use flash cards only into the slot in which they initially formatted the card in - which is also a strange problem besides, isn't it ?

[Amit Aneja]

Sam,

Let me confirm this, did you format the this card on 6500 in disk1:? If not, try that.

AFAIK, there is not difference b/w the disk0 & disk1. Is that a Cisco flash card?

If the other cards work well in disk0, I would say that the flash card has a problem. Get this replaced.

Regards,

Amit

[Sam Preston]

Amit,

I formatted the card in disk1 since it was the only slot in which the Cat6K was able to see (and thus format) the card. After doing this, I moved the card to disk0 to see whether it was now recognized or not. It was still not recognized.

You say that the card must have a problem, but in that case, how do you explain that, when trying in several Cat6K (I've tried in 3 different chassis), the card always works when in disk1 but not when in disk0 ? ...

Thanks.

[Somasundaram Jayaraman]

Hi,

Does the flash card works well in other supervisor engines?

If not it could be possible that the flash card gone bad.

Also have you tried formatting + squeeze option?

format

Squeeze

Hope this helps

Cheers

Somu

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[Joseph W. Doherty · Accepted solution]

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Posting

Recently, I recall reading some note somewhere, for CF sizes > 512 MB, a 6500 can treat disk1: differently from disk0:, as the former supports larger CF sizes.

For example (but this wasn't the one I recall):

from:http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps663/products_tech_note09186a00801a5d58.shtml

⁴Catalyst 6500/6000 Supervisor       Engine 720

—Only the Supervisor Engine 720 has two removable flash card       slots. The slot labeled disk0: supports a Compact Flash Type II card only. The       slot labeled disk1: supports either a Compact Flash Type II card or a 1-GB       MicroDrive. You can connect different types of Compact Flash cards on these       slots. For example, you can connect MEM-C6K-CPTFL128M on disk0: and       MEM-C6K-CPTFL512M on disk1:.

Suspect for > 512 MB CF probably varies per hardware and/or bootstrap.

[Sam Preston]

Joseph,

You've got a point !

I didn't notice this important note in the document from Cisco. According to it, disk0 and disk1 must be made of different hardware since they do not support the same types of flash cards. This must be the root cause of my problems. I suspect that my flash card is working well but it must not be exactly the same type of card as my other ones and thus it is not supported on disk0 but only on disk1.

I think this is something everybody should keep in mind or you may loose a lot of time and/or get really crazy...

Many thanks for your valuable help !

Sam.