Background: I have a fat PS3 which came with an 80GB HDD. I bought a new 500GB HDD so that I could store more games from PS Plus on it.
I followed the official instructions on Sony's website, but encountered something unexpected: it could not find the most updated version of the OS after installing the new HDD. I followed the on-screen instructions and pressed START + SELECT simultaneously to load the PS3/UPDATE/PS3UPDAT.PUP file from my SD card.
After the PS3 read the update, it seemed to be stuck at 99%. I waited at least an hour, and it was still stuck. Googling this problem, it appears that this is common with update 4.55.
Rather than wait even longer, I decided to reboot. The system prompts you to press the PS button on the controller, and then it asks to press START + SELECT again. After that, it installs the system update but gets stuck again at 99%.
Question: How can this fixed?
Best Answer
I finally figured this out.
You should not update the system by pressing rebooting and then pressing the START & SELECT buttons. This will keep the system stuck at 99% when applying the update.
You should enter safe mode, then choose the last option, which is to update the system via storage media. Strangely enough, the update will install without any problems.
I now have a working, bootable PS3.