Xmodem IOS recovery transfer starts ok then cuts off before finishing

[Waterbird]

I have a Catalyst 2960-X switch.  The flash memory was reformatted using format flash: command.  I am using Tera Term on Windows 7 to console to the switch, which has only switch: prompt.  The flash_init command returns that flash has been initialized.  The load_helper command is an unknown command on this switch model.  dir flash: shows an empty flash drive (no files, no IOS).  It indicates the memory is enough to support the new IOS image transfer. I have tried booting to the old IOS but it says file not found.  I have tried different BAUD rates, but no matter what it cuts out before finishing the transfer, despite starting successfully.  My understanding from the Cisco documentation is that Xmodem recovery is the procedure that will work, but it's not working because it terminates early.  Please advise.

[Leo Laohoo]

Oh dear. XModem is so "old school" Cisco needs a "proviso" in their documentation about using it.
2960S/X/XR has a USB port. If you have access to do this archaic task using XModem then you'd be within reach to use USB port to boot/recover the IOS from USB.
The command, from ROMmon, to boot the IOS from USB is: boot usbflash0:IOS_filename.bin
Hope this helps.

[Waterbird]

I tried this command. The result was an error loading message.  Boot process fails. 

Most of the documentation I have seen indicates that only XMODEM transfer will work in a situation where there is a switch: prompt and the  switch is not continuous reboot.

Not sure what ROMMON mode is in a switch, but I do not think the switch is in ROMMON mode. Isn't that a mode that only routers have?

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

have you tried different baud rates,e g.:

switch: set BAUD 57600

Make sure that whatever BAUD rate you set matches what you have set in TeraTerm (Setup --> Serial Port)...

[Waterbird]

I have tried this transfer speed and set both the switch and tera term serial connection to this speed.  It has the same result, it cuts out towards the end of the transfer process after staring and going fine for a while initially.