MacBook Pro 13" 5.5 (mid 2009) new hard drive not detected

Hi,
New here, tried searching for the answer here but could not find any.
I got a few hard drive error on my old macbook black 250gb drive that I put in this MacBook pro.
The system became really slow and kept hanging (beachball).
So I went out and bought a new 500gb WD Scorpio Blue 5400rpm.
The problem is that my MBP doesn't detect the new HDD when I put it in there (doesn't even spin up when correctly put in). It does spin up when only connected to the sata connector but still no detection.
When I put it in an external USB cradle there is no problem.
Also found out that way that the old hdd works fine when booted from the USB cradle.
Does anyone here have any idea what the problem could be?
I'm starting to think it's the controller, but that would probably mean I can go out and buy a new MBP...
Allart

Could also be a bad cable...make an appointment at an Apple store. If the cable is bad, should cost less than $20 to fix.

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