My Problem
All of a sudden, my new SSD drive (6 mo. old) was incredibly slow, beach balling at login and every other second once booted. I tried formatting it (not a decision I made lightly, but figured, "eh, why not?") and it wouldn't even take a clean OS install. At my wits end, I put the old 5200RPM HDD back in the computer, and it worked fine. The SSD worked fine, too, but only when plugged into USB. After some Googling, I read that SSD drives were uniquely sensitive to power interruption and I may have a faulty SATA cable. Took a stab in the dark, and ordered this part.
My Fix
The part came quickly enough, and looked brand new. About 30 minutes later, in unreasonably low light and with my well-known to my family "not so gentle touch," I replaced the cable and turned the computer on. Voila, the SSD drive was working again!
My Advice
If your hard drive is new, or should simply not be failing, try replacing this cable first. I was distraught at the thought of having a (relatively) brand new $250 paperweight, and am glad I decided to replace the cable before understandably freaking the eff out.
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