Now some people would say, "Well, get a new hard disk" or "Maybe it's a bad cable" but the problem is that I have already replaced the cable 9 months ago... I also have tried multiple hard disks that detect just fine in my PC - with no love on the empeg...

It could well be bad solder joints on the IDE header on the mainboard then.
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Remind me to change my signature to something more interesting someday