I was finally able to get it upgraded. Here's the steps I had to take to get it to work. I had to reflash 9.5 because the firmware somehow gets corrupted when I powercycle it during a failed attempt to flash.
- Factory Reset ZD1100
- Run through the setup giving an IP
- Flashed 9.5 while ZD is off the network
- Connect ZD back to the network. Let APs join the ZD and get the fixed firmware
- Factory reset ZD1100 again
- Run through the setup giving an IP
- Flash 9.7 while ZD is off the network
- Connect back to the network. Let APs join the ZD and get the new firmware
- Manually setup all the WLANS and settings.
The only time the upgrade flash seemed to work was right after a factory reset. It would always sit at 0% upgraded for at least an hour before I would finally kill the power on the ZD, unless I factory reset the ZD and then attempt the upgrade. We'll probably upgrade to the ZD1200 sometime next year, but we needed to be on 9.7 to get a couple of R300 APs connected.