Take note this appears to be a bug and not intentional by Sony, just wait for the fix before upgrading HDD

Gamers are reporting that Sony's recent PlayStation 3 firmware "security patch" prevents users from upgrading the console's hard disk drive.

PS3 firmware update v3.56 – released last week – was described as a "security patch" by Sony bigshot Eric Lempel.

Some speculated that it was an attempt by Sony to prevent George "Geohot" Hotz's infamous jailbreak from working.

However, reports indicated the patch itself was hacked just days after release – and now it seems it has caused problems for unsuspecting PS3 owners.

Eurogamer reader Marshall2008 took to Eurogamer's forum to spread the bad news: "At present you will get error 8002f2c5 when you change your HDD and the only way to fix it is to put the old drive back in," he wrote.

"I bought a 320GB HDD to upgrade my 120GB PS3 Slim. I stuck the drive in and got the usual message about putting in a USB drive/stick with update 3.56 or newer on. I stuck the old drive into a sata caddy formatted it and put the update on. All good so far until it gave me error 8002f225.

"Checking online it appears to be a firmware bug which screws up upgrading your HDD. Unfortunately for me I wiped the original drive so I can't just stick it back in and I will have to wait for a fix."

Eurogamer reader Joseph Bat then pointed Eurogamer towards spiralling threads on the official EU PlayStation forum.

Reports indicate the issue is restricted to the 16MB flash PlaySation 3 models – which includes the Slim. Eurogamer has contacted Sony for comment.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-02-01-ps3-security-patch-halts-hdd-upgrades

I think this restriction has been around for a while, not just with the latest firmware.

Maybe they only noticed it now, but I recall even when I started researching upgrading my PS3 drive (40gb model) I saw ppl mentioning the restriction to 16MB flash models even before the latest firmware came out.

In any case, bummer for those who can't do it.

nope its only on the new stuff and new patch i did this in november i think

i upgraded my 40gig phat model ... with the help of DP ... update from castlevania 3. something ... and a 120gig drive...

How hard is it to upgrade the drive? I still have a 40g Fat Boy but I would like to upgrade the drive.

morch its pretty easy aslong as ur screw isnt stuck... woofels sawed off his ..but if u havent done your new upgrade then you should be fine to install ur new drive

well atm im fine with my 120 gig HDD.. but if i want to upgrade in future i hope this doesnt give me a issue.

@Morschee: Tons of tutorials online showing you how.
The drive is easily accessible from a side compartment on the phat model. You basically pop the sucker out, stick in a new one, the PS3 will restore the OS from flash memory and then you just have to perform a manual restore of all your data (which you backup using the built in Backup Utility onto an external USB drive).

I'll be doing mine later tonight so will report back if it works and if I run into any issues.

Don't forget to sync your trophies as those don't backup using the backup function to an external drive/USB. You have to sync your PSN account in order to save your trophies.

Ahh thanks for the reminder, forgot about that.

still loose your saves no? the copyright ones?

Well basically I'm going to do the following:

1) Use the backup utility to back everything up to an external drive
2) Sync trophies
3) Backup saves individually to drive just in case(have done this before and it was all good)
4) Install new drive, restore backup and see what's working/not working

I've done just saved games before, and then just redownloaded patches and DLC. Worked fine then, but not in the mood to redownload again so trying the full backup this time.
And of course it remains to be seen whether the drive works, but have had no indications that it wont.

Right, so updated drive. Easiest thing in the world, synced trophies, ran the backup utility.
Stuck new drive in, PS3 formatted it. Chose to restore, PS3 formatted it again. All in all took about 20min to do and everything seems just as it was, except I have more space now.

Only strange thing is that it claims to only have 256gb of 298gb free. I wasn't even using the full 40gb previously so no clue where the sudden 42gb usage has come from.

Anywho, confirmation that on the older phat models (40gb at least), update still works fine.

hahaha nice ...