re: MacBook Pro Flashing folder with ?

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Ok a couple of questions after doing more reading up on this.
1) What is the simplest way to verify that there is no problems with the HDD?

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Get a SATA cable, remove the HDD from the laptop, connect the HDD to the SATA cable, other end can be hooked up to the USB. Boot your computer like you normally would except hold down option key at start up until you hear the chime. Go through steps and you should be able to select where you boot from, so your HDD should be showing up on that screen. Select the HDD, should run on the screen like it did before besides maybe being a little slower because its running from the USB port.

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2) Assuming my HDD is fine, if get the SATA-USB cable and connect my HDD externally, what will happen when I power on the computer? Is this just a way to bypass the hard drive cable completely? Will things boot normally?

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See above, yes it is, but its only temporary, you don't get the full processing power and speed from the USB that you do from the built in hardware.

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3) If am able to finally fix this problem, and I decide to keep my computer and want to upgrade to an SDD, what is the easiest way to copy everything from my HDD to the new SDD?

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External HD. If you're already on the fence about buying a new computer and you can afford it, then I would definitely go that route.

If you wanted to keep this mac around for simply an extra computer, you could put about $300 into it and it should be running pretty good with an SSD and upgraded RAM.

Only sort of annoying part is you would have to get the OSX on the SSD, so you have to partition it and all of that garbage which isn't difficult, it just takes time.