Djdrock, remember that it might not be the hard drive itself. It could be a loose cable or the IDE header. Perhaps it can be fixed without even needing the serial port.

You still should work out a solution for a serial port if you can. For instance, your description of the problem (boot logo appears and stays there) indicates you're on software 1.03. There are some great features in 2.0 that you're missing, and you need the serial cable to install that. Also, Hijack is very cool, and you can install that with the serial cable.