PS3 "security patch" halts HDD upgrades

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.