Cisco 1841 Memory

AvgITGeek

Hi all. I received my 1841 today and I'm checking the memory (flash and DRAM) and flash isn't adding up. I ejected the flash memory and it is cisco branded (part number 17-6717-02) and says 128MB. However, when I do a show flash I get the following: 10657792 bytes available (21274624 bytes used) which leads me to believe this is only 32MB. If I run a show version I get the following: 126976K bytes of ATA CompactFlash (Read/Write) which around 128MB

Am I reading this wrong? I'm getting over the flu so I might not be reading this output properly. I feel like I'm losing my mind.

kaiju

10,657,792bytes  + 21,274,624 bytes used = 31,932,416 bytes or 31,932.416k bytes so you definitely have a 32mb flash.

AvgITGeek

Why is show version displaying something different? Unfortunately, I don't have another 1841 I can test. I guess I can drop another $20 or so dollars on another flash drive. What are the odds that the router is flakey? I want to get this thing to IOS 15.

kaiju

Does the "sh ver" output display a partitioned CF?

AvgITGeek

Thanks for the suggestion on it being partitioned. Here is the result of show version

Cisco 1841 (revision 6.0) with 233472K/28672K bytes of memory.
Processor board ID FTX1046Z0WN
2 FastEthernet interfaces
2 Serial(sync/async) interfaces
1 Virtual Private Network (VPN) Module
DRAM configuration is 64 bits wide with parity disabled.
191K bytes of NVRAM.
126976K bytes of ATA CompactFlash (Read/Write)

It almost has to be, right? Again, this is displaying what I have in my first post which indicates 128MB. How can I tell if it is partitioned?

A show file systems and show flash both say 31932416 bytes. What gives? Do I have a dodgy flash card? I guess I could buy another one from Amazon for $20 and find out.

AvgITGeek

I'm going to try to format the CF card and then copy back down the IOS it is booting from. See if that fixes things.

kaiju

Copy the IOS to TFTP or a FAT formatted USB drive before doing anything.

Try "sh flash: all" to show everything about the CF before using "format flash0:"

AvgITGeek

Show flash: all indicates it is class c.

Ahhh! I tried using a USB drive yesterday and it crabbed about it. Probably because it may have been NTFS formatted. I'll have to play with this tonight or tomorrow. I've already got the IOS on my local computer which is running TFTP so worst case scenario is I have to unrack it and do things the hard way from ROMMON.

Thanks again!

AvgITGeek

Done deal. Flash formatted and IOS copied back in and it is now showing 128MB

R_1841#show flash:
-#- --length-- -----date/time------ path
1     21270976 Jan 6 2019 14:39:40 +00:00 c1841-advsecurityk9-mz.124-21.bin

108457984 bytes available (21274624 bytes used)

YAY

kaiju

Awesome!!

AvgITGeek

For anyone out there ordering used equipment: If your router comes with flash, double check it. This one was shipped stating only 32MB of flash even though it really had 128MB.

Formatted a USB stick as FAT32 and now the router recognizes that too. This was a good learning experience with filesystems and configuring boot order when you have more than one IOS on the boot device.