Why won't my SSD work?

Question

Hey everyone, sorry for the long post but I wanted to make sure I didn't leave out any details. Thanks in advance!
Last week, my Mid-2012 13" i7 MBP suddenly started to freeze, boot slow, and began to click (or so I thought, I'm paranoid). Not unfamiliar with a drive failure, I replaced the drive with a working 7 year old 200GB Seagate drive. I restored from my Time Machine backup and all was well. In an effort to not have to deal with hard drive issues for the remainder of my Mac's life, I purchased a 500GB Samsung 840 EVO.
Upon installation, I formatted the drive to JHFS+ and tried a fresh install of Mavericks via USB stick which failed (and I failed to check the log, yay). I replaced the Seagate drive, remade the stick, and tried the install again. Multiple attempts at formatting (including trying to use Terminal: diskutil) all fail alternating between two errors: "File system formatter failed" and "Wiping volume data to prevent future accidental probing failed". Also, trying to perform a disk erase using terminal returns a "POSIX I/O Error". The drive also fails to format when booted into Internet Recovery. An Apple Hardware Test returns a "4HDD/11/40000004: SATA (0,0)" error.
Using the USB stick, I tried installing Mavericks to the SSD with an external USB 2.0 to SATA enclosure where it performed at USB2 speeds, but flawlessly. As soon as I installed the SSD with Mavericks into the MBP, it failed to boot.
I was about to RMA the SSD until I put it in my 6-year old HP, formatted it, and it installed Windows 7 where it functioned quickly and flawlessly.
The only thing keeping me from purchasing a new SATA cable is the fact that I'm typing this right now with no issue from a 7 year old 200GB Seagate drive. Also, I'm about tired of dumping money into an already expensive laptop. I would travel to an Apple store for service but the nearest one is over 1.5 hours away.
I've updated the firmware of the SSD to the latest available, reset PRAM/SMC, reseated the SATA cable at least 7 times, and considered throwing this thing in the trash at least 42 times.
13 frustrating hours later and I'm still left with a half-functional Macbook 3 weeks out of warranty. Any help is greatly appreciated and thanks again...

Answer 1

Alright, just for kicks I installed the factory (and what I thought to be dead) drive in my external USB enclosure, booted off of it, and lo and behold everything is functioning fine. More and more this situation is leaning towards the internals of my MBP and I guess the SATA cable...
Now, three questions... First, what would make the SATA cable of a year old MBP that has NEVER been opened suddenly fail? Second, why is a 7 year old Seagate drive the only drive that seems to function properly in the internal SATA slot? Third, isn't it more likely that it's the SATA cable and NOT the SATA controller?
The entire reason I bring up the SATA controller is the fact that when the factory drive was "failing" it simply would freeze. I was originally thinking hard drive failure because of the sounds it was making. These Toshiba drives have completely different sounds than the Western Digitals/Seagates I see fail in PCs I work on. The drive is making the same noises it was when it was in my MBP (yet working 100% in the USB enclosure) so I assume it is working normally.