Is it possible to use an old HDD in a new PS3?

To elaborate, I have two PS3s currently, one is broken since I dropped it like an idiot and something shook loose around the motherboard, and now it won't turn on. Obviously, this eliminates the possibility of using an Ethernet cable to transfer data between the broken one and the new one. My issue is that I have not figured out a way to use the old HDD from the broken PS3 instead of the HDD with the new PS3. Both of them have been updated to 4.81, and I have tried several options in Service Mode on the new PS3, but it refuses to accept the new HDD, citing that the system software cannot be run or something like that. Any advice/fixes? Or is what I'm trying to do totally futile?