New SSD not being recognized by laptop BIOS or Windows 10 installer

Hey /r/buildapc, I know this isn't PC-related per se, but I'd love to get some insight on what my problem is.
I have this Asus TP300LD laptop I got from an Unclaimed Baggage store for a steal of $175, with an i5-4210u, 6GB RAM, GTX 820M, and a 500GB HDD. It was a great school laptop, and for my birthday I got a 500GB Samsung 860 EVO 500GB SSD for the laptop.

I decided to do a fresh reinstall of Windows. First, I removed the old HDD, and then installed my new SSD. Started the laptop up, and put my USB stick with a Windows 10 installer in. I got to the menu asking where to install Windows, and my SSD was not appearing.

This was weird but I tried fixing it via shift + f10 and using the Disk List method, only for the SSD not to appear there either. I tried editing stuff in the BIOS, re downloading the Windows install, etc, nothing worked. My SSD was not appearing.

Eventually I plugged this SSD into my main desktop and initialized it on my PC. It showed up fine and everything. So I took the now initialized SSD and put it in my laptop, and again, it did not appear.

So at this point I've wasted 3 hours of my life trying to install an SSD, so I decide to give up for now and put my old HDD back in...

...except now my HDD is not being found either. I am actually clueless as to what the issue is. I am thinking MAYBE the SATA connector wire is shorted or something because it's got some crazy bends, but I'm not sure how to go about fixing this.

Anyone ever had something like this happened, or know of a solution? I'm going crazy, I got the 860 EVO for $70 total and now it's just sitting on my desk