Resetting a Cisco 2960G switch back to Factory Defaults if you don’t know the passwords

This information can be foud here.

Quite Basic process to reset a CIsco 2960G switch back to factory defaults if you don’t know the passwords of the switch:

1. Hook up a console cable to the Console Port and use Putty or other serial client to view the Console session
2. Hold down the Mode button on the front of the switch and power it up
3. When the SYST light stops blinking, let go of the SYST button
4. You should see the switch booting up in your console session
5. When presented with switch: type flash_init and hit enter
6. Once it finishes loading, you need to delete some files in the flash. List the files by entering dir flash: (don’t forget the : at the end)
7. Delete the config by entering del flash:config.txt
8. You may also have VLANS set up on the switch, so you need to delete that info as well, del flash:vlan.dat
9. Now type boot and hit enter to reboot the switch

That’s it. The switch will now go through a factory default boot up, and ask you if you want to configure it further.