I just got a used 3550 and see a number of files in flash:

Directory of flash:/

    2  -rwx         322   Mar 1 1993 00:02:24 +00:00  system_env_vars
    3  -rwx        3721   Mar 1 1993 00:06:22 +00:00  config.text
    4  -rwx         187  Mar 12 1993 02:38:15 +00:00  layout.text
    5  drwx           0   Mar 1 1993 02:10:37 +00:00  lost+found
    6  -rwx         121  Mar 12 1993 00:29:11 +00:00  layoutOption.txt
    8  -rwx           0   Mar 1 1993 00:02:24 +00:00  env_vars
    7  -rwx          24   Mar 1 1993 00:06:22 +00:00
private-config.text
   24  -rwx     7134015   Mar 1 1993 00:15:51 +00:00
c3550-ipservicesk9-mz.122-25.SEE2.bin


What are layout.text and layoutOption.txt?  
3550#more layout.text
CISCOKID001;__network_root_node__,-1000,-1000,true;0009.b7e1.3100,59,18,false;ecs44h2,-1000,-1000,true;0009.b7e1.f800,379,27,false;0009.e811.7400,223,25,false;0009.b79c.9f80,221,216,false

3550#more layoutOption.txt
IPPhone:true,HName:true,LinkSpeed:true,IPAddr:true,AP:true,CPE:true,Candidate:true,IName:true,Neighbor:true,MACAddr:false


Why are there two entries with zero bytes: the lost+found directory
and env_vars?

What is private-config.text and why can I not display the contents?
3550#more private-config.text
%Error opening flash:/private-config.text (Permission denied)

Bob <nobody@nowhere.com> writes:
>What are layout.text and layoutOption.txt?  

IIRC, something from the web based switch manager that must have been
deleted off your flash at a later time. The old one was pretty bad. 
The newer one is passable, but I think thats only available in
switches newer than that model. 

>Why are there two entries with zero bytes: the lost+found directory
>and env_vars?

In Unix (which clearly has influenced IOS in many ways), lost+found
is the directory on the file system where recovered/damaged &
recovered files are placed after a fsck.  Probably never used on
Cisco. 

env_vars hold variables between reboots. I believe the function of
this has changed over the years, and is no longer needed, but is still there.

>What is private-config.text and why can I not display the contents?
>3550#more private-config.text
>%Error opening flash:/private-config.text (Permission denied)

Private data to the switch that Cisco doesn't want you to see. 
I suspect there could be some licensing there for some models..

On 17 Apr 2009 18:52:11 GMT, Doug McIntyre <merlyn@geeks.org> wrote:

>Bob <nobody@nowhere.com> writes:
>>What are layout.text and layoutOption.txt?  
>
>IIRC, something from the web based switch manager that must have been
>deleted off your flash at a later time. The old one was pretty bad. 
>The newer one is passable, but I think thats only available in
>switches newer than that model. 
>
>>Why are there two entries with zero bytes: the lost+found directory
>>and env_vars?
>
>In Unix (which clearly has influenced IOS in many ways), lost+found
>is the directory on the file system where recovered/damaged &
>recovered files are placed after a fsck.  Probably never used on
>Cisco. 
>
>env_vars hold variables between reboots. I believe the function of
>this has changed over the years, and is no longer needed, but is still there.
>
>>What is private-config.text and why can I not display the contents?
>>3550#more private-config.text
>>%Error opening flash:/private-config.text (Permission denied)
>
>Private data to the switch that Cisco doesn't want you to see. 
>I suspect there could be some licensing there for some models..

I don't care about browser-based management so I'd like to delete the
layout files.  Can you think of any reason not to erase them and the
zero byte file and directory as well?

Or to put it another way, does the switch need anything besides an
image file (and maybe system_env_vars) to run?

Bob <nobody@nowhere.com> writes:
>I don't care about browser-based management so I'd like to delete the
>layout files.  Can you think of any reason not to erase them and the
>zero byte file and directory as well?

I would think the layout files are totally fine to wipe. 

I wouldn't try to remove the other files that are always there. 
There could be some boot code detection looking for those, even if
they aren't used. 

>Or to put it another way, does the switch need anything besides an
>image file (and maybe system_env_vars) to run?

Err, why? Its not like there's alot of stuff happening there anyway.