40 to 44 ide adapter wrong installation can cause hdd failure?

Hello,

I'm building a carpc and I was planning to use an old 2.5" hddIibm/hitachi travelstar 20gb) with this adapter(40/44), but the new pc(intel atom 230-intel minitx mobo) did not see this hdd, I have tried all the settings, but it was a no go. I have set up a winxp on it in the laptop and installed it in the new pc. I have tried this ebay adapter both ways(fliped over the hdd), but still did not see it.
I would like to find out if this could have damaged the hdd, because now I have reinstalled the hdd in it's original laptop and it's not recognized in the bios.
laptop hp n5270
pc intel minitx-intel atom 230
ebay 40 to 44 pin ide adapter
20gb travelstar ibm/hitachi 2.5" ide hdd