Just yesterday my PS3 went up and finally done it. The light on my PS3 is green for a split-second, then yellow for another split-second, then blinks red repeatedly. Shit is dead. Even if I can fix it, I'd much prefer the less power-hungry Slim version of it and now's my chance.

It's an old model (60GB) that has backwards-compatibility and while having the option to play PS2 games, it was only used for Persona 4-play, which was awesome. But I don't really care for it anymore. I'm kinda relieved that thing finally died since I always worried it would die any day now, and it finally did.

Anyway, can I just pull out its upgraded hard drive (160GB) and place it in a new one with its data intact? I'm thinking about buying the cheaper Slim model when funds aren't tight. And I will open it up to get my copy of LA Noire. Oh, and thank God for cloud storage. Oh man.

touch its shoulder? 

I tried that already.

You cant im afraid, the Phat model harddrive is incompatible with a Slim, Even if you take the harddrive out and put it into any PS3 it will reformat, so basically your save data is lost if you cant somehow boot up your PS3. The same thing happened to me so i feel your pain, although this was a while ago, maybe theres a new work around? the only one i can think of, that i used myself is the hair dryer trick which basically gets your console working temporarily, then you can quickly backup your savedata, if your desperate then search it on youtube. Either way good luck. (that is if you havent got the cloud saving PS plus feature).

I've had a PS3 slim for over a year now, and I just found out where the god damn HDD was. Is that sad?

Poop. All that mattered to me in getting another PS3 was whether or not the data was intact while also upgrading hardware. Downloading anything from PSN is a real hassle for me since the download rate, once bottle-necked, stays that way until I restart the system. Hopefully, an expired PlayStation Plus subscription doesn't delete my cloud save data. Also, I don't know where the hard drive is located on a PS3 Slim because I don't have one. =(

Well, if one of your friends has an old working ps3 you can put in your HDD and make a backup of it afaik (you'll need an external HDD). 
 
http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/current/settings/backuputility.html
 

Some types of backed up data can be restored on another PS3™ system. The types of data that can be restored on another system are as follows:

• - Saved data from PlayStation®3 format software *1
• - Saved data for minigames ("minis")
• - Saved data for PSP™Game
• - Image files under (Photo)
• - Music files under (Music) *2
• - Video files under (Video) *2
• - Bookmarks added under (Internet Browser)
• - Terms that were added using (Settings) > (System Settings) > [Add/Edit Term], or predictive terms that were "learned" by the on-screen keyboard

*1	Copy-protected data cannot be restored. Also, saved data that has been restored may not be usable in some games.
*2	Does not include copyright-protected data.

Damn, I don't know anyone who has an original PS3 model. My flaunting has come full circle. Well, I'm happy I finished most of my games, I guess. I hope I can download everything that was on my PS3 onto a PS4 or something.

You can't. I had this same problem and the hard drive is locked to one PS3. You can't save the data from the drive but your cloud stuff should still be there. I don't know how cloud-saved data and trophy-locking works though, whether it's the same as USB data (where trophies can't be earned with imported data) or not. Good luck though duder.

@rjayb89 said:

Just yesterday my PS3 went up and finally done it. The light on my PS3 is green for a split-second, then yellow for another split-second, then blinks red repeatedly. Shit is dead. Even if I can fix it, I'd much prefer the less power-hungry Slim version of it and now's my chance.

It's an old model (60GB) that has backwards-compatibility and while having the option to play PS2 games, it was only used for Persona 4-play, which was awesome. But I don't really care for it anymore. I'm kinda relieved that thing finally died since I always worried it would die any day now, and it finally did.

Anyway, can I just pull out its upgraded hard drive (160GB) and place it in a new one with its data intact? I'm thinking about buying the cheaper Slim model when funds aren't tight. And I will open it up to get my copy of LA Noire. Oh, and thank God for cloud storage. Oh man.

I believe the PS3 would automatically start to try and format the new drive. You could always use disk imaging software such as Acronis so you don't lose anything. I think the only option yo will have is to hook up the old drive to the new PS3 via a usb hard drive kit and just copy your saved games(that you didn't backup to cloud or physical storage) or whatever else you wanted to save.

Bury it.

Bury it.