Help with downgrading. Replace harddrive after downgrade

[Underdogg]

I have a question about updating en downgrading.
At this moment i have an fat ps3 with origional 40 gig internal disk. I have replaced the disk for an 500 gig. All my backups en stuff are now on that 500 gig disk.

Now i want to play Gran Turismo 5 so i have to upgrade to firmware 3.50. But when i want to play my backuped games i need to downgrade my ps3 to 3.41 again.
I've read that the internal disk will be formatted when you downgrade.( if this is true)

My question is will it be possible to change the internal disk at firmware 3.41 to my old 40 gig on. Then update to 3.50 and play gt5. Then downgrade with ps3key en get back to firmware 3.41 and replace my internal disk with the 500 gig.
Can i then play my backups agian or will this not work?

i hope that someone can help me out with this.

[Underdogg]

Nobody who can help me out?
ik have an 40 gig ps3 model CECHG. I found out that it maybe doesn't format the drive(not 100% sure).

So please can someone tell me what's my best option.

[alkar]

update to 3.50 keeping your 500 gigs disk, play GT5 and when you are done, put your 40GB hdd back. Then downgrade (so it keeps your GT5 save on your main hdd, else you wont be able to recover it since it's locked), and when you are back on 3.41, just put your main 500 gigs hdd back, and the ps3 will ask you to put a usb stick to reinstall 3.41 files to your hdd (since the hdd has 3.50 stuff) and voilà, all your data are back.

[BenC]

Im in the same boat as underdogg so this is good to hear it can be done im in the process of either downgrading or buying a new ps3. I have read somewhere downgrading can have an effect on the blue ray drive has anyone had any problems?

[chesh]

alkar is wrong, when it asks you for the thumb drive with the 3.41 files on it (after putting back in your precious 500gb HDD) it will format the HDD. You'll lose everything.

@BenC: Ya mean this 200+ page thread here? WARNING! RED ALERT! DOWNGRADING KILLS BLU-RAY MOVIE PLAYBACK! - PSX PS2 PS3 Scene Modchip & Jailbreak Community Maybe you should do some reading before you start to downgrade.

[BenC]

Yeah I started reading it and got bored, I think if there is a problem with downgrading I might stick to getting another console and using it for online games so I dont brick my JB console

[chesh]

Honestly, that's the safest solution. If you've got the money, it's also the best.

[BenC]

Thanks mate thats all I needed to know I'll hunt down another PS3 and go down that route

[alkar]

Really ? I read somebody else reporting he downgraded from 3.41 to 3.15 that way and it didnt delete anything when reinstalling 3.15 files, unless 3.41 is different but I doubt it.

Can't link you to the post, since I forget where I read that, but it's on psx-scene.

alkar is wrong, when it asks you for the thumb drive with the 3.41 files on it (after putting back in your precious 500gb HDD) it will format the HDD. You'll lose everything.

@BenC: Ya mean this 200+ page thread here? WARNING! RED ALERT! DOWNGRADING KILLS BLU-RAY MOVIE PLAYBACK! - PSX PS2 PS3 Scene Modchip & Jailbreak Community Maybe you should do some reading before you start to downgrade.

[chesh]

If you've got a slim, then the HDD will format in most cases. If you have a phat, you can pretty much count on that it won't (even though there have been some that have), but you'll then probably have the BD issue. The only consistant thing between everyone is, that if your drive didn't format, you have BD issues, if it did format, you'll be able to play blu-ray disks just fine.