Help!!! Sudden freeze -> bluescreens -> hard drive not detected!

Hello again everyone- earlier tonight I was on my M11x R2, using the laptop normally after a long drive back to Austin from the countryside. After a while it froze up, and eventually Bluescreen'd. I restarted, and after a few minutes of working normally and surfing in my web browser, it Bluescreen'd again. I try this one or two or times, until suddenly it doesn't boot up at all, and instead tells me that there is a cable disconnected + that no hard drive is detected.

I ran diagnostics, and everything was fine except that no hard drive is installed.

I checked the boot order, and it only allows boot up from network (since hard drive is not being detected, I assume).

I have never had problems like this for the last 3 years until tonight, so I am assuming that the drive and the bouncing on the old country roads either 1) did something that now caused my hard drive to melt down or die for good (I am no tech guy, I have no idea) or 2) the drive knocked some cable loose, and I just need to reconnect it to regain my laptop. I opened up the bottom of my laptop (see picture below), but am not tech-y enough to know if something is wrong or needs to be reconnected.

I am a law student and have some major assignments due in a few days, so if people can help me figure out what is wrong ASAP it will be VERY appreciated. Edit: I have tried just taking the hard drive out, airdusting it, and putting it back in.

Here are some pictures I took with my phone that I thought might be helpful in letting people guide me further:

 

Try reseatting the hard drive, simply unplug it and plug it back in.

Even though the following video is on an R3, the components are pretty much the same on both of them. You can use it as a reference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TRWi1CYRKg

 

I did take the hard drive in and out, but I didn't think to take it out of the metal cage and re-connect the connectors just to be sure.

I took the laptop to a notebook repair place today and they think they can clone the whole 500 gig hard drive neatly on to a new 1 terabyte hard drive for $160 for everything together, so I handed it off and it's too late now anyway. But maybe when they hand it back, I'll ask them to try replugging the connectors right quick in the store. Thanks.

 

It's a toshiba hard drive so I wouldn't be surprised if it has failed they are without a doubt one of the worst drives for reliability.
$160 is a bit steep for a 1TB hard drive + fitting though if all they are doing is cloning the drive.