MacBook Pro will not detect HDD?

Hi, I own a MacBook Pro 15-inch 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo. In the middle of my work, my computer had frozen, so I shut it off and tried restarting, and even reset the PRAM. However, I got the "cancel" icon instead. After a few more tries, it turned into a folder with the question mark. I figured it was a bad hard drive due the the result of an accident involving meter fall that happened a few days prior.
Today, I purchased a replacement hard drive - a Seagate Momentus XT, and an external hard drive case for the old one, just in case the old one does work. I booted the computer using the OS X install CD only to find out the HDD hasn't been detected. I've restarted several times and no luck. Meanwhile, I installed my "broken" hard drive into a usb enclosure only to find out that it does work and functions normally. I then tried formatting the new drive to HFS using another Mac, and no luck. I've even reinstalled and switched between the two drives and still no luck.
I concluded that if the hard drives weren't the problem, then it was the connection between the hard drives and the logic board. I made sure that everything was securely connected, but that did not work. The problem is, I don't know whether or not it's the SATA cable or the logic board. Otherwise, everything else seems to boot up fine. My warranty ended September 2010 as I simply couldn't afford AppleCare. Any advice as to what I can do from this point on would be helpful.
Thanks!
Message was edited by: BradleyMG
Message was edited by: BradleyMG

The only way to determine if it's the logic board or the cable is to switch out each. One trouble shooting thought is if you have another computer you could put the new Seagate into an enclosure and see if the other computer can see it, that will at least verify your guess that it's fine. If it's not found then you one that was DOA.
However all that being said you mentioned you got the folder with question mark screen, this indicates the logic board should be OK.
To be honest my recommendation would be to take it to an Apple Store to be checked and to determine what the bad part is.
Best of luck,
Roger

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