MBP won't boot from internal HD after upgrade

I was trying to upgrade the hard drive to a 320 GB option in my Macbook Pro exactly like it said on Ifixit.com. Everything was going fine, or so I thought, until I tried to turn the computer on and nothing happened. The boot chime sounded, but the computer wasn't recognizing the hard drive. So I tried to see if I just had to boot from the OS X install DVD, and still the computer wouldn't recognize the drive. So I thought maybe the drive was bad. But when I tried putting back the drive that was originally in there, the MBP still wouldn't recognize the drive. So I was racking my brains trying to figure out what the heck I could've done wrong.

It appeared that I inadvertently tore the hard drive cable from the part where it connects to the logic board. I tried putting a tiny bit of crazy glue on there so that the metal contacts would come together and left it drying overnight. But the next day I still couldn't get the computer to boot up. I tried booting from an external drive and that works perfectly fine on both the new and the old drives.

I took the computer to a local repair shop here and the guy told me he doesn't think the ribbon cable is the problem. He claims that electricity is flowing through the cable so it shouldn't stop the computer from booting from the hard drive. Instead, he says it is most likely static discharge that screwed up the motherboard, specifically the IDE controller ( I think that's what he called it but isn't the drive in the MBP SATA, not IDE?).

Sorry for the long explanations, but I thought the more info I gave the easier it would be for someone to share some insight. Anyway, is it possible for the computer to boot if the motherboard supposedly was fried through static discharge? And if there WAS static discharge, wouldn't I have been able to feel it when it happened? Something just tells me the repair guy was either lying to me to try to charge me more, or just didn't know what he was talking about. So could anyone with hardware expertise theorize what happened here? Should I try to replace the hard drive cable myself and see if that is indeed the problem or am I totally screwed?

Find another repair shop... That guy is giving you a "Tap Dance". Your machine couldn't boot from the external drive if the motherboard was damaged from a static charge.

And yes, your machine uses SATA not IDE.

When you tore the ribbon cable from the logic board connector that effectively opened the cable. No amount of gluing is going to work to restore conductivity. Only precise soldering would work.

Without examining the logic board connector with a strong light and magnifying glass it may be difficult to see where and how many contact points it makes with the cable. It may be next to impossible to solder those tiny connectors without ruining something else.

However, look closely at the connector itself that's on the logic board. You may have just tore the cable from the female connector part that pushes into the male connector on the logic board. If that's the case, you should be able to dislodge the broken connector part from the logic board. If you're lucky enough to be able to remove it, all you would then have to do is replace the SATA cable which goes from the connection on the logic board to the HDD.

If all that sounds like something you would rather not mess with, I suggest you take it into an authorized Apple repair shop or an Apple store and let them do the repairs.

Regards.

Thanks very much for the quick reply This is pretty much what I thought but I wanted to make sure I didn't overlook something.