Corrupt HD turned out to be exhausted HD cable

My Problem

My 2009 MBP (2.53 GHz) stopped booting seemingly out of no where -- I took it to an Apple store and they "confirmed" that the HD was busted (totally believable as it's the factory original). I bought a new SSD and that wouldn't boot either. After some testing it turned out that the factory HD was fine but the SATA cable was not responsive.

My Fix

If you're looking to replace your HD cable, I highly would suggest spending the extra $5 to include the bracket. 99% of the battle installing this was fitting the IR sensor back into its tiny connector. Aside from that it went great!

My Advice

If your HD crashes it might not hurt to remove the HD and attach it to your USB. What some might charge hundreds for turned out to be a $35-50 quick fix.