For the purpose of updating FW the drive does not need to be married to the console. So you can connect ANY compatible drive and update to exploitable FW, then jailbreak it and install CFW, then remarry the drive.
You only need a married drive for booting any apps, and obviously for reading/playing from discs.
Also, If you are extra lucky it will be on an OFW that is already exploitable.
1.00 to 3.55 can can install CFW without any special hacks
4.80 to 4.87 can be exploited with via ** ** www.ps3xploit.net > Domain no Longer owned by team** (NEW URL = http://ps3toolset.com) > Domain no Longer owned by team** (NEW URL = http://ps3toolset.com to install CFW