PCB PHOTO ATTACHED TO THE POST resolution: 3264x2448

Dear gurus, I seek your help to determine what's wrong with the board (if anything). Here's my problem:

HDD: MY BOOK ESSENTIAL 1TB with USB 3.0

HDD doesn't do anything at all when connected to PC. It does not spin up, nothing. Not visible in BIOS either. I looked up several other posts by people with the same issue and done some digging prior to this post. The relevant information was too scarce to be of much help, so I decided to post here.

I removed the pcb and connected the disk to motherboard directly via SATA - it DID show up and seemed to work flawlessly. Due to the encryption, however, it showed up as unallocated space.

PCB: 4060-705089-001 REV. P1 (board)
4061-705089-001 REV. AG (sticker on the board)

Recent behavior: nothing unusual, HDD did not fall, there were no blackouts and AFAIK no power surges, no strange noises.

Over the course of more than 2 years, the HDD has fallen several times - not higher than knee height and always on carpet. BUT more than half a year back the usb cable end part got a little bent - no more than a millimeter. The disk worked fine regardless, although sticking the cable in the disk met with stronger-than-usual resistance. I have no means to determine if the cable is the faulty component here - I have no other USB3 micro device to use with the cable or another cable to use with the disk. I intend to go to a not-so-local computer service store to ask them to try different cable with the disk, but that is not going to happen right on Monday (today is Saturday for future reference) so I figured I could look into it with someone's help.

Relevant information I found during my research:

Solution #1: Get another PCB from the same HDD with the same number. Sometimes this doesn't work because the encryption key is unique for every PCB/HDD combination - another PCB would generate different key! There is a workaround - importing the responsible chip from the old PCB (patient) to the new one (donor).

Question: Which WD models require chip import and which do not?

Solution #2: This model with USB 3.0 sometimes has problems with a MOSFET component which does not switch power. The component can be removed and the pins wired together - this permanently powers up the PCB (we only turned a power switch permanently on)

Solution #3 There is a safety diode which short circuits when there is consistently higher voltage input. It can be removed to get it to flow again.

Concerning measuring voltage/resistance on the board I am the most noobish of noobs - I found a digital multimeter around here but I don't know how to operate it or where to put the leads (is that the right word?) I know that resistance is measured from one end of the component to the other end and voltage is measured against ground or something. From the other posts I figured that measuring the voltage/resistance on relevant components can help with determining where the problem lies.

The power socket looks like it has come adrift. Can you see any cracked solder joints, either on the component side or bottom side of the PCB?

Measure the voltage at the pins of the SATA power connector. Connect the black probe to ground and the red probe to the +5V and +12V pins. You should do this without the HDD attached.

http://pinouts.ru/Power/sata-power_pinout.shtml

If you can't measure any voltage at the SATA connector, then measure the voltage between FB12 and ground.

If you don't know how to perform these measurements, then it may be best to have someone do it for you.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

You were right, one of the joints was cracked. It was a very tiny crack. I wouldn't have found it myself - I just assumed that the power socket was crooked from factory since it's very firmly attached and doesn't move at all. I joined the broken leg and the problem is solved. Thanks for your insight.