hi there, it's been a long time since my last post. I have a big problem with my PS3, as it says in the title it's not loading the system, it turns on but nothing else happens. I'll tell you the story:

-yesterday I turn on the ps3 to play the Brutal Legend Demo, it started as normal but after a few seconds of the first cinema the ps3 froze. it didn't respont to anything on the controler so I went to console, put my finger over the l/O censor until I heard the 3 fast beeps to restart the ps3. I've done this before and never had problems.

-the ps3 restarted but didn't got anything on the tv, I looked back to the ps3 and the green light was flashing. I waited a little but nothing changed. I tried to turn it of with the l/O censor but didn't respond so I had to do it with the switch in the back.

-I turned the switch back on, got the stand-by red light on. used the l/O censor, the system seem to load. got the sound and the wave-like thing on the screen but no XMB. after a couple of seconds the ps3 hung with no XMB. also it didn't do anything when I tried to use the l/O censor. I had to use the switch again. I tried this twice and had same result.

-I tried the Recovery Menu. option 1 is useless, of course it restars the ps3 but just get a black screen and nothing more. option 2 says it restores the default settings then I get black screen, the HDD led keeps on for 1 or 2 minutes then goes off and nothing happens. option 3 makes a black screen with the HDD led on, I've left like that 2 hours and just keeps like that. option 4 first minutes seem to work but then it hangs out. option 5 tells me it is restoring default settings, the HDD led on for 1 or 2 min then goes off, it doesn't hangs but last night I left it working for 12 hours while I went to work and when I came back it was just like I left it. haven't tried option 6.

could it be that the HDD is not working properly? should I take it off to check it on my PC? or it should be easier/faster/better just to change the HDD?

any help will be appreciated, very appreciated....