Western Digital Blue 1 TB Hard Drive Not Detecting Problem

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Tools Needed

1. Eraser

Western Digital Blue 1 TB hard drive is not detected. This means you can't hear the hard drive spinning, and it isn't turning on even if the power plug and sata cables are connected. There isn't any problems with the hard drive's motor, platters, or heads. The hard drive isn't turning on.

Underneath the hard drive, there are two sets of connectors. The normal color should be golden, but it becomes black sometimes. In my case, all the connectors were black, so it wasn't conducting any electricity for the SMOOTH L7251 3.1 controller chip. The controller chip allows the hard drive to spin, and if this isn't working the hard drive will not turn on. All of the connectors having soot on it was preventing it from doing its job.

First I used tissue paper, and I gently wiped the contacts, and some of the connectors became gold in color. Then, I plugged the hard drive to a hard drive caddy, and the hard drive was detected. Then, I remembered from a while back I had the same problem, and I used a pencil eraser to clean all the contact surfaces until I had the same golden color on all the contacts. You have to do this gently and slowly, because you don't want to damage the printed circuit board. I plugged it back into the caddy, and it worked after I did it.
So using deductive reasoning, you can assume that the connectors being dirty caused the SMOOTH hard drive controller chip to not work. After I cleaned all the contact surfaces, it worked. That must have been the problem.

They should have never put those contacts on that side, or they should have covered it. The way hard drives are positioned on a computer is that they are in the front of the case, and most computers have cans on the front to draw air in. This can make these connectors dirty over time. In my case, all these connectors were totally black. If the connectors were covered, it wouldn't be exposed to the air from the outside which in most cases is dusty and contains other contaminants which can corrode these connectors.

It may not work in all cases, sometimes you may have a bad PCB. If that is the case, you need to get a PCB(Printed Circuit Board) for the same hard drive, and you need to transfer your BIOs from your current hard drive to the new board. That requires a heat gun, soldering iron, and a solder wick to achieve.

I have a table on my webpage about various types of storage devices, and links to where you can buy them.
https://he-1000-1975.com/hard-drives-...

Hard Drives:

Western Digital Blue 1 TB hdd @ Amazon Link: https://amzn.to/2RAdpBH

Western Digital 2 TB hdd @ Amazon Link: https://amzn.to/2RD8CPS

Western Digital 4 tb hdd @ Amazon Link: https://amzn.to/2SDlnXX