help! Cisco router 2811 got stuck in boot mode.

David H Lee · ‎03-19-2018

Greeting all! I currently have couple routers running and about to add one more at work. 2811 is the one Im trying to add and I made few huge mistakes today. I know I should have done some more research, then I'm in a huge trouble. so far, not exactly the same way, but this is sort of what I did. I tried to boot without flash drive since my old flash drive had some unnecessary crash files, then I accidentally deleted IOS image as well. Although I downloaded one meantime, I tried to find other way to boot up. so, I did this;

Rommon 2 > confreg

Configuration Summary

enabled are:

load rom after netboot fails

console baud: 9600

boot: the ROM Monitor

do you wish to change the configuration? y/n [n]: y

enable "diagnostic mode"? y/n [n]:

enable "use net in IP bcast address"? y/n [n]:

disable "load rom after netboot fails"? y/n [n]:

enable "use all zero broadcast"? y/n [n]:

enable "break/abort has effect"? y/n [n]:

enable "ignore system config info"? y/n [n]:

change console baud rate? y/n [n]:

change the boot characteristics? y/n [n]: y

enter to boot:

0 = ROM Monitor

1 = the boot helper image

2-15 = boot system

[0]: 2

Configuration Summary

enabled are:

load rom after netboot fails

console baud: 9600

boot: image specified by the boot system commands

or default to: cisco2-C2600

do you wish to change the configuration? y/n [n]: n

then, this happened.

Rommon 3> reset

============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================ about 100 line after,

==============================================================III

it seems like os got corrupted, and I don't know what to do at this point. I waited for 20 min, nothing changed. I know I messed it up big time, but I really want to save this router. can any expert help this poor soul out please? thank you very much.

Leo Laohoo · ‎03-19-2018

The router has a CF slot. Inside the CF slot is a CF. What happens if the CF is ejected and the IOS is copied directly to the CF using a memory card reader?

David H Lee · ‎03-20-2018

well, I accidentally deleted IOS image from flash drive, and I haven't bee able to transfer IOS image from computer to flash drive. Meantime, I ejected CF out of the CF slot and brought it home to transfer files, so there is nothing in CF spot. Do you think router got stuck because there is nothing to read from CF slot, and if I get IOS image transferred in CF, and consequently input CF w/ IOS image will move this forward? thank you in advance.

Leo Laohoo · ‎03-20-2018

@David H Lee wrote:

Do you think router got stuck because there is nothing to read from CF slot

Yes.

@David H Lee wrote:

consequently input CF w/ IOS image will move this forward

Yes.

David H Lee · ‎03-21-2018

thank you so much again! Still have couple more things to ask you. first, my computer asked me to reformat the flash drive to FAT first, should I format it that way? also, do cisco routers only recognize one .BIN file from Flash drive, not bunch of .BIN files from a folder? I mean, I got few other .BIN files with MD5 files in 2801 folder which I downloaded. I'll report again once recovery work is done. thank you so much!

Leo Laohoo · ‎03-21-2018

Do not format the CF when asked by a Windows machine.

Just copy the IOS into the CF.

David H Lee · ‎03-22-2018

the router didn't boot from USB drive, so I had to reformat CF drive, then copied necessary IOS. I shall try again tomorrow.

However, I actually made another mistake on another Router that I have. I tried to check if that CF is readable on cisco router, so I took old one out of 1841, then put 2811's CF( one that I'm having trouble with), then 1841 act weird, so I put the old one back in, then tried to reboot. However, it's constantly saying "wrong software for this machine". what I am I supposed to do? any clue? sorry for causing problems. I'm going to post this one separately though. thank you once again!

David H Lee · ‎03-23-2018

I tried, but nothing worked. I forgot to mention that once power is on, that's pretty much it. I messed it up, but don't know what to do. I assume that Rommon got corrupted. Is there anyway that I can recover from it? or is it done for good? I can take a pic of what's going on, but not sure if that would help. thank you.

Leo Laohoo · ‎03-23-2018

Console into the router. Post the output to the following commands:
1. dir;
2. dir usbflash0:

David H Lee · ‎03-27-2018

hello! I've tried everything. To be more accurate, I turned on and off the router so many times, and it doesn't let me type anything, not even dir flash: or anything. It only shows ================================= for about three pages and stops. I simply can't do anything. is there any way I can restore entire system? or should I just toss it to the gabage bin? thank you again!