Cisco Switch Password Reset

[Segvoia]

Hello Guys,

I am interested in purchasing a used Catalyst 2900 Series switch, but the current owner unaware of his passwords.Can i possibly reset the passwrod so that i can go for the deal

Any thought and ideas?
thanks

[Snake08]

You can do this way
* power off and back on the device
* hold down control and hit break
* Once you are at the rommon> prompt, type confreg.
* Say "n" to all options except this one and enable "ignore system config info"? y/n [n]: y you could tell "n" to all other options
* once back at the rommon prompt, type reset and let the device reboot
*Once booted, if you do a show version, you will see that your config register is 0x2142. Now, you can either go to enable mode and do a show startup-config to see what the enable password is OR, if you have an enable secret password set, you can replace it by doing a copy start run, then going into global configuration and creating a new enable secret with enable secret cisco, then copy it back with copy run start.
*You need to alter the config register back. In global configuration, type config-register 0x2102,save your configuration with wr or copy run start
*reboot the device and you should be back with your original configuration but with a password that you know

[Spyrus]

MY guess is it depends on the model of the switch, but to be able to reset the passwords you do have to be connected to the switch via console cable.
I had to reset a 2950 switch yday and to get into that you had to hold the mode button while you powered up.depending on the model there is a way to reset the password for privilege user mode.If you are buying second hand, confirm that the console cable is supplied with the switch, unless you can get your hands on one simply

[Milton.J]

While you are at prompt type # and hit enter ? = the help menu. in there you should scroll and see the word configuration this is what the conf is short for.now go:#conf? you should get a list of all words that start with conf. or type #configuration ?.this will give a list of all the second commands that will go with the first. In this list you should see the word terminal ( t ).in the end just type this:#configuration terminal.if you don't get to Switch(config t)# then you have an issue and i would guess you need a new ios.Have you could always boot in ROMMON and see if the IOS is in there and if other files are there you can delete the others.. don't delete the IOS file.