Hacking Wiping HDD and Reinstalling Firmware. Possible?

[dboy1612]

So yeah, I'm the new guy, just recently getting in to the jailbreaking scene. I've done quite a lot of research about jailbreaking your PS3 over the past two weeks from what chipsets and how to program them, to getting around to actually playing the games you want; though just now, I recently came across a question that I can't seem to find an answer to.

Lemme explain myself quickly, so I don't sound like a total noob like those repeatedly asking how to downgrade/reinstall their firmware. Though, I can't remember where the sources are on where I read about all this, so bear with me.

(For the record, I have a PS3 with firmware 3.50 running on it)

On one website, I learned that you are not able to -downgrade- from firmware 3.50 or hack it from that matter. Kay cool, not thinking about it.

Another website, I read about how to unbrick your PS3 if anything were to go wrong. The tutorial read about taking your harddrive out of your PS3, throwing it away, and installing a new one, and then installing your firmware on it.

Now, I found the whole throwing away a harddrive to be odd, why couldn't I simply low level format it and throw it back in? And then put the firmware back, with possibly the version of my choice? ... You see what I'm getting at.


So, pretending this wouldn't void my warrenty, does the theory make sense? If I were to take out the HDD, wipe it clean, put it back in my PS3, and then install the firmware of my choice (which I'm guessing would be from a game disc), would I get away with it?

Stupid question? Maybe; but hey, thought I'd give it a shot anyway. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[aZnXrAvEr]

No, it wouldn't work. The PS3 firmware is not stored in the hard drive, it's stored in the PS3 console. When you put a blank hard drive into the PS3, it will get formatted so that it will work with the system.

You can put older versions of the PS3 update files on a USB drive and plug it in the console, but of course it's not going to let you downgrade to them.

 

[Rydian]

While there are reports of being able to downgrade, they require you to be jailbroken in the first place.

You're stuck on 3.50.

 

[Gobnoblin]

wasn't there a way to brick and recover to a lower version? maybe I'm just making that up..... we'll see how the game progresses

 

[Rydian]

There was, but that required being jailbroken as the tool used to do it wasn't signed properly.