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

[tibimakai]

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

 

[hang-the-9]

IDE Laptop drives get power through the same pins as the data. If you happen to have sent one signal to the wrong pions, you could have fried the board of the drive.