System ZD 1100 USB

I've had one ZD1100 where I did something like this, but I have bad news: If you are seeing some sort of reboot loop occasionally which can only be solved by unplugging the hot-glued USB key inside the ZD1100, then you likely have a hardware failure of that USB key and need to RMA your ZD.

Note that you can indeed format and, if you're a Linux guy, even look at its reiserfs filesystem on a computer. But it's rarely helpful. My advice is, if you need to recover your ZD, follow the procedure at https://support.ruckuswireless.com/answers/000001481

If you see this happening a lot, then you should RMA the unit.



(P.S. If you're tempted to try to replace the USB key, I'll save you some time: It doesn't work. The ZD seems to rely on that specific Winbond USB drive. Putting in another identically sized USB2 key, even with the exact same contents, didn't work)

(P.S. If you're tempted to try to replace the USB key, I'll save you some time: It doesn't work. The ZD seems to rely on that specific Winbond USB drive. Putting in another identically sized USB2 key, even with the exact same contents, didn't work)

You are wrong. You can make USB image using Linux, and move it to another USB or microsd card. Everything works like a charm. 

I was able to resurrect a ZD1100 that was stuck in Rescue Mode. The internal USB stick had died. I removed the stick, and repaired it with the "SMI Mass Production Tool" but decided not to use it, since if it died once, I wasn't going to rely on it. I had another, generic 2GB stick lying around, and used that instead. It's nothing special - just some old compact, folding thumb drive I've had in a desk drawer for years. I tried a larger stick, but that produced some complaint about the size, so there must be a narrow range of sizes that will work.

The real key to my success, however, was to ignore the feedback from the web interface, and rely on the console output instead. In particular, the FDISK function of the web interface reports success far too readily. The console output is much more accurate.

I inserted my generic 2GB USB stick, pressed the FDISK button in the Rescue Mode web interface, then watched the progress in the console. When formatting was done, I tried uploading various firmwares via the web interface. At first, I tried newer ones, but the console output showed 'out of memory' errors of various sorts. I went back as far as 9.3.x, and that was small enough to work. Once I had 9.3.x firmware running successfully, I performed the usual sequence of upgrades, restored my config backup, and all is well.

Maybe this can help someone else keep their older, end-of-life hardware running. Obviously, I would not recommend doing this for a box that's under a current service contract or warranty.

System ZD 1100 USB - FOR THIS I WILL RECOMMEND YOU "Linux", what's more, move it to another USB or microsd card. Everything has exactly the intended effect.and move it to another USB or microsd card. Everything works like a charm. NEED ANY assistance "technical" then dont hesitate to take help from us 

does this work on zd1200 which is using CF card?

Have tried 2GB generic usb & fdisk does not seem to do anything 

OK, sorry to be vague, thanks for asking.
No progress bar, just states completed instantly.

Have a dead ZD1100, rescue mode does not detect storage with original USB drive.
plugged generic 2GB usb drive in, clicked on FDISK comes up completed instantly, to be sure I have left it running FDISK for over an hour, then performed upgrade using 9.3 image as above notes.
Proved FDISK process is failing, plug usb drive back into windows PC it still has original format and has not changed.

Many Thanks, spooky my memory stick looks exactly like the photo, but also tried other ones.
As an update I have managed to clone from a working ZD USB drive & successfully revived the dead one, but would still be nice to know why the rescue process didn't work.
Will get a serial console cable & give it another try.

I've had this issue happen once again, and am about to try a USB stick like the one mentioned above. I'll report back how it went. It's worth nothing that the stick I succeeded with a year ago was a pretty old one. That may be a factor in my success. I'm not sure what the difference would be. Clearly I got lucky.

Also worth noting; Firmware 9.8 and above will indeed prevent you from upgrading without a support entitlement file, or something. However, 9.7 has no such restriction. Mine complained a little as I recall, but I was able to get it to firmware 9.10.x by jumping directly from 9.7.

Here's an excerpt from my notes to my future self from a year ago. (I tend to adopt a conversational tone with future-me. It's calming);

"The USB sticks inside these beasts look to be SMI 3255AB or similar. They fail a lot. It is possible to resurrect them using the SMI Mass Production Tool. You may have to set the number of bad blocks higher than normal in the settings to achieve this. Presumably, you'll wind up with less usable storage, so I'm not sure what the point of this would be."

Perhaps this will provide some useful clues to someone else who's even more desperate.

Anyway, the USB stick I just tried failed, as did a vintage, 2GB SanDisk Cruzer. It was at this point that I dismissed screwing around with even lower-level USB stuff, since I'm not a huge fan of putting band-aids on band-aids, and frankly, my time is worth more than this. Ebay to the rescue. Two used ZD1100 units from two different sellers for $150 was acceptable to my employer. I'll put one or both of these in service next week as a stopgap, and then propose a sensible migration away from EOL hardware. Fortunately, I have consumer-grade dreck to limp by on until then. Apart from lower throughput, and dodgier coverage, my user base won't even know the difference for the few days we'll be limping.

If I'm sufficiently bored one day, and figure this out, I'll post more.

Thanks Dan, As I stated above, managed to revive dead ZD1100 by cloning another working USB,
So the vintage USB worked when cloned, but no good trying FDISK rescue mode.

That's awesome. I'll be trying that here in the next couple days.
Also, to confirm: I just got the first of two used ZD1100's in today. It had 9.8.x installed. I downgraded to 9.7.x, then upgraded that to 9.10. It's deployed and working fine.