PS3 bricked, or just needs a new hard drive?

[Graham]

I was having an issue with my PS3, where when I would start it I would need to rebuild the hard drive every time I would start it up.  It would work after I did this though.  I recently tried to upgrade the firmware and it caused me to get a black screen.  Eventually I was able to get the Safe Mode up, but I have reformatted the drive using NTFS and FAT32 to try to get it to work, but it doesn't seem like it is working.  I can't even use the "Rebuild PS3 System" (option 5) to get it to work.

Has anyone else had this issue?  Is it bricked, or would I just need to get a new hard drive to get it working?

[Scraper]

Not sure exactly but it does sound like it may just be the HD. If you have an extra laptop drive laying around you can try that. I know I have an old 20gig one from my PS3 that would work, if you get desperate I can send it to you.