Installing an SSD in MacBook: bigger challenge than anticipated

Greetings, and thank you for stopping by.
I am trying to install a newly purchased Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD into my MacBook. (MB062/A) I have attempted to use both CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner) and Disk Utility to "clone" an external hard drive onto the SSD. I have been running my computer on an external HDD as a stop-gap measure until I could make the SSD function properly. (the OS is Lion)
When I say "function properly", I mean to say that the drive, when connected by SATA, will not show up in the "boot options" screen, (the one found by pressing 'Option' during startup), nor will it show up as a Startup Disk, but will interact with the laptop, and even allow me to boot from it when connected by USB. (I own a cable that allows me to connect USB to IDE or SATA drives.) Is there something wrong with my computer's internal SATA connections? I've got more information, but I feel it makes sense to keep this post relatively short.
tl;dr: new SSD is detected by MB062/A MacBook running 10.7 when connected by USB, but not SATA. Help?

It could very well be a faulty SATA connection. This is an old laptop. (2007 is kinda old for a computer, right?)
I had another drive before the SSD in my computer (obviously. ), it was an HDD, and it connected via SATA as well. I took the laptop to a technician and they diagnosed the drive by its sounds: it was broken. Could a faulty SATA connection also cause the driveto make abnormal sounds?
At the time of the technician's diganosis, I didn't realize that in order to use my USB-SATA cable, you had to supply the drive with power as well. I plugged it into the adapter and got no results so I assumed the drive was dead as well. I listened to lots of HDD failure sounds online, but none of them sounded like my drive. I assumed it was broken (probably the RIGHT assumption to make), and thought maybe I could transplant the platters onto another drive I had. The one I planned to transplant onto had rather old backup data on it (still stupid to open the drive, I know) and both drives just don't work now. They "spin up" , sort of, but don't show up or mount. Sometimes I can get one of them to appear in Disk Utility, but it refuses to mount. It doesn't matter if it's by command line or by Disk Utility, it just wouldn't mount.
But, y'know. Everymode makes lousy mistakes. I won't ever open a hard drive again. Nobody else do this either pleeease. It doesn't help. Just saying. Ask a technician to do it. If that. They'll probably say "no." Listen to them.
My two cents.

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