There's some linkedpages, but note the mention of Amphenol and how there was a product recall in the US due to fire hazard.
Crikey, looks like I have been lucky indeed - could have been so much worse. As Aardvark suggested earlier in this thread, combined with the fluke I backed it up to Blu Ray on Friday... maybe it really would be a good idea to buy a lottery ticket this week, while it lasts.
Knowing my more typical luck of course, the Blu Ray will turn out to be just a coaster when I try and read it.
It's got no media - music, TV stuff etc, but that can be recreated from original CDs. It has all the critical stuff that really matters, SVN repos, email backups since the dawn of time, Bugzilla (bug tracking database) and the likes. I think the SVN repo was actually on the suspect disk so right now, I'm taking very good care of that Blu Ray.
From that 'recall' link
The SATA side has the words Serial ATA on one side with the word Amphenol on the other.
That's a very general description, but it certainly meets the description of mine. And the vintage is about right too. I definitely registered the system with HP because it was a spectacular bargain (just over £100) and with a spectacular 'server grade' warranty, with next-day on site service. So they could have recalled if they'd tried.
I liked Tony's idea too, of a whisper bridge, which is kinda what's being discussed elsewhere. I'm no expert on these things but the damage looks to me like it began at the cable-entry point of the connector, maybe a small outbreak of flame, then spread out up th cable, and towards thee edge of the connector, melting it as it went.