So you want to upgrade your PS3 hard drive

I've ran into a problem that I haven't read about while upgrading my PS3 hard drive. I thought I did my research on the subject, I watched the cnet video here and a youtube video here. I've also read a few blogs on the subject here and here. I thought I was prepared for what awaited me, little did I know what changes lay in wait. Since my PS3 is one of the newer ones that came with a 40GB hard drive, I just knew I would be able to turn it into a 250GB monster. I bought my drive from newegg.com (thank you very much), whipped out my screw driver and went to work one evening after my day job.
I think the biggest difference is I don't have anything on my PS3 that needs to be saved. Sure, I used a USB flash drive to copy my saved games but that's it. After I replaced the hard drive and powered up the PS3 I was greeted with a message asking for media with firmware 2.41 (which was installed on my PS3) or newer. No one said anything about needing the current installed firmware or newer on some media like a disc, USB flash drive or external hard drive before the PS3 would accept the new hard drive. I started checking every site I could think of and googled even more, I could not find anything. In my ever increasing frantic panic I came across the playstation.com website, Specifically this page here. which has the latest firmware for down load and instructions on how to install it using a USB flash drive. I followed the instructions, got the firmware installed and then the PS3 gave me the option to format my new hard drive. I had to setup my PS3 as if it was brand new, created my profile again and had to sign in to my account which one blog (linked to above) said the PS3 retains that information. Nonetheless, my PS3 is working perfectly now and my saved games are all good to go.
I don't know if this is something new with the 2.41 firmware or maybe new hardware configuration due to Sony trying to cut cost or because I did not use a external hard drive to back everything up. Either way it would have been nice to see some updated information on one of these blogs or videos.