from PS3HaX Network - PS3 Hacks

After a long time it finally seems that there might be a break through for the PS3 hacking scene. XVISTAMAN2005, has found a way to partially install a debug PS3 firmware on a retail PS3. Partially meaning that he has found a way to get a retail PS3 into debug mode, but currently the options are non functional.

ps3 debug screener

Additional changes when the PS3 goes into this mode is that the Blu-ray drive no longer plays blu-ray movies.

However luckily, you can get out of debug mode easily by simply updating to a higher retail PS3 firmware, restoring Blu-ray movie playback functionality, and any other PS3 functions that were disabled in debug mode. The media server feature goes away but to restore it again, insert the original PS3 HDD to PS3 and reformat - read the tutorial below so this makes more sense.

So what is amazing about this? This gives PS3 hackers a huge new area to work with that was not previously available before, plus not to mention that devs already had a working ISO loader running on a full debug console this method currently gives us a partial-debug console.

Note: For this to work your system must be below or at 1.80 for the 1.80 debug update and below or on 2.01 for the 2.15 debug update. Just use the next version up from your current firmware version for the retail update.

Stay tuned we will keep you updated, view the tutorial on how to install the debug firmware below as well as download links to debug firmware.

[[TUTORIAL] How to install debug firmware on retail PS3 partially-HDD swap method]

UPDATE 1:
For those who are seeking to do this method with 2 diffrent hard drive sizes, a method has been found:
Originally Posted by ggparallel

Now for everyone with hdd problems , you can do a copy of the whole hdd and make it working.
I used the following procedures i have two hdd 60GB and 40GB :

I made a full format of the 40GB hdd and then i used the dd_rescue utility to recover the 40GB image on the 60GB hdd now i have a perfect copy , and it works of course.

This is great news for PS3 Hackers! Thanks for the heads up R7i1c3K.