"Correct Hard Drive not found" on startup?

[GLOCKGLOCK]

Man, I think I'm screwed. Last night I had my 60gb PS3 shut down on me after I queued up the downloads from the PSN store update. I got the red flashing light, turned the system off and back on and it kept freezing at the login screen. Tried it again and it froze after loading the XMB. The next time I turned it on it just sat there and gave me this message:

"Cannot Start. The correct Hard Drive was not found"

Anyone encounter this? The sony forums have not been much help. I sent an email to Support and they just sent me a link to the same FAQ that didn't help me in the first place. The email also made mention of sending my system in for service. The problem is I do not have a receipt. How hard-core are they going to be on this? What if you receive a system as a gift?

If my hard drive is indeed fried, I'm thinking I might just install a new hard drive to fix the problem?

Anyone with any experience with this problem or suggestions on what I should do?

 

[Paco]

you can try taking that drive out, reformatting it on a windows pc as a FAT32 partition. Then put it back in the PS3 and it should ask you if you want to format the drive.

 

[GLOCKGLOCK]

[quote name='Paco']you can try taking that drive out, reformatting it on a windows pc as a FAT32 partition. Then put it back in the PS3 and it should ask you if you want to format the drive.[/quote]

Yea, that might be an option. I don't really want to lose all my data though. I think I have an extra notebook HDD laying around that I might try to install tonight.

If I take out my current PS3 HDD can I backup/transfer the data somehow?

 

[JMEPO]

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=165729

You're probably going to find more answers here.

 

[GLOCKGLOCK]

[quote name='JMEPO']http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=165729

You're probably going to find more answers here.[/quote]

Yea, I checked that thread and there was some good info there. I ended up running to BB after work and picking up a HDD there just to see if that was the problem. Swapped the drives and the PS3 fired right up with no issues. Now I'm going to have to start searching for the best possible deal I can find on a new HDD for my PS3 and return this overpriced one to BB. I'll have to pick up one of those enclosures for my old HDD and see if I can salvage any of my old data off of there.