Not able to enter Rommon mode in a 3560

[afo99]

Hi guys,

I bought 2 3560 switches to practice my ccnp switch exam.
However when received those switches and booted them, they were set up with user login details which i don't know of course.
So I tried breaking the boot up to get in to rommon mode so i can make it skip the nvram. 
However it is not even letting me do that and proceeds on with with booting.
However i do get an error when loading the IOS, "Error loading "flash:c3560-ipbasek9-mz.122-46.SE/c3560-ipbasek9-mz.122-46.SE.bin"
please see below further:

Boot Sector Filesystem (bs) installed, fsid: 2
Base ethernet MAC Address: 00:23:5d:8a:3c:80
Xmodem file system is available.
The password-recovery mechanism is enabled.
Initializing Flash...
flashfs[0]: 5 files, 1 directories
flashfs[0]: 0 orphaned files, 0 orphaned directories
flashfs[0]: Total bytes: 15998976
flashfs[0]: Bytes used: 11774464
flashfs[0]: Bytes available: 4224512
flashfs[0]: flashfs fsck took 9 seconds.
...done Initializing Flash.
done.
Loading "flash:c3560-ipbasek9-mz.122-46.SE/c3560-ipbasek9-mz.122-46.SE.bin"...flash:c3560-ipbasek9-mz.122-46.SE/c3560-ipbasek9-mz.122-46.SE.bin: no such file or directory

Error loading "flash:c3560-ipbasek9-mz.122-46.SE/c3560-ipbasek9-mz.122-46.SE.bin"

Interrupt within 5 seconds to abort boot process.
Loading "flash:/c3560-ipbasek9-mz.122-55.SE6.bin"...@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Can you please assist?

[Martin L]

it looks like someone updated IOS with 122-55 from 122-46 but it did not change boot command to boot from 55.
it is ok as long as switch loads 55 image.

did u follow password recovery procedures ? probably hold Mode button during initial boot

[Martin L · Accepted solution]

password recovery should be here

Hold down the mode button located on the left side of the front panel, while you reconnect the power cable to the switch
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/switches/catalyst-2950-series-switches/12040-pswdrec-2900xl.html

[balaji.bandi]

Looks like your boot variable set to different one. change as below and test and advise

boot system flash:/c3560-ipbasek9-mz.122-55.SE6.bin

[Leo Laohoo]

The switch is attempting to load a newer IOS version.
If you want to go into ROMMON you need to hold down the Mode button for about 20 seconds and after applying power.

[afo99]

Holding down the mode button and going through the password recovery helped.
Thanks guys.
You guys are such legends :D