Suspect disk drive going bad & slow performance, startup slow progress bar

My Problem

Macbook Pro starting to crash a few times when using, and reboot or startup encountered slow startup & slow progress bar. Performance was very slow when using... and noticed the laptop was extremely warm where the hard drive is located. Assume the hard drive was going bad...Took my mid-2009 Macbook pro to Apple store to determine if hard drive is bad, after they examine it, they determine that 90% is bad disk drive cable. Disk drive was 100% okay. They can't repair due to it is now consider vintage... well don't carry the part. They pointed me to ifixit web site that carries the part, and if you are handy a DYI person can repair for alot less, or you could send to repair service to fix for ~$100-$150. Part cost ~$40. Part arrived fairly fast. Plenty of Utube videos to show how to replace defective part with new one.

My Fix

Very easy to repair if you take your time.

My Advice

Used tools (small tiny phillip screw driver) from iphone tookit purchased from ifixit a couple year ago to fix broken screen. Have container to hold the tiny screws.