Repeated MacBook Pro 2012 HDD Cable Failures Two weeks ago, a friend's mid-2012 MacBook Pro gave the dreaded question mark folder upon attempting to wake from sleep. I pulled the drive and checked it (backed up, SMART status passed, 70+ MBps read/write - pretty good for an old 2.5" spinner). I booted to AHT and ran full hardware diagnostics. It came back with no errors. I know that HDD cables in these machines fail regularly, so I replaced the cable with a used one I bought from PowerbookMedic.com. It worked!

About a week later, the exact same thing happened - a flashing question mark on waking from sleep. So my question is:

Could a different piece of hardware be failing/did I overlook something? If so, what? If not, what are the chances that this new cable failed so soon after install? More importantly, if I exchange it for another used cable, what are the odds it will fail quickly again?

Important notes:


HDD is known good
Once the flashing question mark folder shows up the first time, nothing will boot attached to that cable (attempted with Win10 SSD, macOS HDD, multiple attempts made - the first time this occurred, a cable replacement solved that issue).
Computer will still boot and operate effectively from HDD when attached via USB


Please don't hesitate to ask any clarifying questions!
Looks like it was just bad luck. Got a cable from Amazon here as recommended by Allan in the comments and installed it. It's been working for almost a month with no issues.