This is not a problem with the hard disk or its cable. If it was, the symptoms would be the unit stopping playback completely and, upon rebooting, saying that it failed to detect a hard disk.

Actually, his symptoms are consistent with some kind of disk drive trouble. Others who have reported such a problem have sometimes resolved it by solving problems with the disk drive.

Slammed, the cable and the IDE header are not the only two things that can go wrong with a disk drive. It could also be a bad disk drive, a heat problem, a spindle pressure problem... any of those things might cause those symptoms. It could also be unrelated to the disk drive, as others have suggested in this forum. Please check carefully every possible one of the causes.