Cannot upgrade HDD after Rogero 4.30 JB

Hi Guys.
Here's the story:

My old 1st gen Jailbroken 250 GB Fatty died. Used Gaia on CFW 3.41 to play my backups. Flowed it a couple times, never lasted more than 2 months. Let it rot and dust up for 3 yrs.

I bought me an ol' CECHA 40 GB Fatty on OFW3.01 this week.

Read this place all over, and was mislead into installing Rogero 4.31. It does not run a WHOLE LOT of my games.

Gotta redump my DVDs. But In need of MUCH pore HDD Real Estate.
1-Backed the dumps to the PC
2-Removed all the new crap I installed (Multiman & stuff)
3-Tried to backup the system, which crashes at 9%
4-Surrendered. Powered off.
5-Popped the drive off, pushed the 250GB , powered up.
6-Got the screen asking for FW. Inserted stick with 3.55 OFW
7-System DOES NOT FIND A SUITABLE FILE !!!

Rogero does not want to go back to OFW 3.55, and I can't use my HDD!

I've read some stuff about Rogero 4.21 requiring a DOWNGRADE PUP to 3.55, then LVL setting, and finally 3.55 OFW. Is this the case with 4.31 as well? I already bricked a Slim once, and had to go beyond 3.7 OFW loosing jailbreakability. I'd rather avoid a repeat.

Can anyone shed some light into this?

Thanks in advance.