ps3 hard drive problems

hi all

i recently acquired a ps3 off my mate which had a hard drive error on it saying it was corrupt it wouldnt read any disks at all !! after looking thru many forums i discovered that the best option for me was to go to the service menu and try restoring the setting ... with no success !! so after some more looking i decided to format the hard drive thru my pc but now the ps3 is saying there is " no applicable update data was found " and that i should load it thru an external drive but it doesnt recognize it and wont load the update !!

can any one help me get it working it is really starting to bug me now !!

i do not have any warranty so contacting sony is not an option nor do i want to pay someone for something i could sort out myself with a little help !!

thanx in advamce