Cisco Catalyst 2900XL, 3500XL, 2940, 2950, 2960, 2970, 3550, 3560, and 3750 Series Password Recovery

Unplug the power cable.

Power the switch and bring it to the switch: prompt:

By Hold down the mode button located on the left side of the front panel,  reconnect the power cable to the switch

Release the Mode button after approximately 15 seconds

Immediately Switch will show

The system has been interrupted prior to initializing the flash file system to finish

loading the operating system software:

flash_init
load_helper
boot

switch:

Then Issue commands

switch : flash_init

switch : load_helper

switch : dir flash:

above command dir flash: will show available files in your switch's flash drive

Now you have choice either to delete those configuration files or just recover password preserving your configuration

If you want to delete then


switch : delete flash:


Delete all files other then your boot image bin file will clear All configuration from your switch

Other wise

switch: rename flash:config.text flash:config.old

then issue boot command

Enter "n" at the prompt to abort the initial configuration dialog.

At the switch prompt, type en to enter enable mode.

then in enable mode

Switch#rename flash:config.old flash:config.text 

Switch#copy flash:config.text system:running-config 

Switch#conf t

Switch(config)#enable secret

Switch(config)#enable password  

!--- To overwrite existing vty password 
Switch(config)#line vty 0 15

Switch(config-line)#password

Switch(config-line)#login 
 
!--- To overwrite existing console password
Switch(config-line)#line con 0

Switch(config-line)#password

Write the running configuration to the configuration file with the write memory command.

Switch#write memory