The problem was located. There is a power disable feature in modern SAS drives, and maybe even others. There is a WD spec sheet on this here

The issue is the drives are made for a server backplane, which has a function on this pin that keeps it 0 volts. When you issue a drive power-cycle reset it send a temporary voltage to this pin, which power cycles drives. This only happens to drives that have the firmware programmed to do as such.

If your connecting these drives to ATX type PSU's (any maybe other non server and backplane units), these PSU's deliver a constant voltage to this pin, which doesn't allow the drive to spin up at all.

There are several solutions you can use to get the power cut from that pin.

See below for a suite of options.

1. For me I was able to use "Kapton Tape" to tape off specific pins on the drive itself. This tape has shown to be able to stay after a couple connections, but is difficult to cut and place this small piece of tape. Its also questionable if you want the tape on your actual drive pins if your drive is not easily hot swappable, since if the tape comes off, you need to remove the drive again to put on a new piece if you frequently are connecting/testing things.

2. Taping the 3rd voltage pin, which is the 3.3v pin, worked fine for me more info on that here. Instead of this option, next time I will probably go with the next option, taping all 3 pins instead.

3. You can tape all 3 of the first voltage pins to play it safe. More info on that here. This link shows taping all 3 pins, which is to play it safe for some cable wiring which links the 3rd pin to the 1st and 2nd. e.g. if you tape the first pin, and your drive still doesnt start, then tape all 3. But its going to be alot easier to cut a piece of tape that size, and should have more stick power as well.

4. You can also physically remove the 1-3rd pins on your SAS adapter cable set, info on that here.

5. One that looks even a bit less maintenance is you get an extension cable, you can cut the first wire on your SATA power connector same link as above here. I would not cut the actual cable from your PSU.

6. You can also simply use the Molex to SATA adapters, which don't supply the 3.3v. The problem with this is, if your getting one of these newer drives, you probably have a newer PSU, and maybe even a bunch of disks (BOD :-)), so the newer PSU's have mostly SATA power connectors, and not Molex. So you don't want to overload your only Molex power line with more than say 3-5 drives, its too much for one line. SO you are probably better off utilizing your many SATA power lines if you have them.

The problem was located. There is a power disable feature in modern SAS drives, and maybe even others. There is a WD spec sheet on this here

The issue is the drives are made for a server backplane, which has a function on this pin that keeps it 0 volts. When you issue a drive power-cycle reset it sends a temporary voltage to this pin, which power-cycles the drive. This only happens to drives that have the firmware programmed to do as such.

If your connecting these drives to ATX type PSU's (any maybe other non server and backplane units), these PSU's deliver a constant voltage to this pin, which doesn't allow the drive to spin up at all.

There are several solutions you can use to get the power cut from that 3.3v pin, which will allow it to spin up normally.

See below for a suite of options.

1. For me I was able to use "Kapton Tape" to tape off specific pins on the drive itself. This tape has shown to be able to stay after a couple connections, but is difficult to cut and place this small piece of tape. Its also questionable if you want the tape on your actual drive pins if your drive is not easily hot swappable, since if the tape comes off, you need to remove the drive again to put on a new piece if you frequently are connecting/testing things.

2. Taping the 3rd voltage pin, which is the 3.3v pin, worked fine for me more info on that here. Instead of this option, next time I will probably go with the next option, taping all 3 pins instead.

3. You can tape all 3 of the first voltage pins to play it safe. More info on that here. This link shows taping all 3 pins, which is to play it safe for some cable wiring which links the 3rd pin to the 1st and 2nd. e.g. if you tape the first pin, and your drive still doesnt start, then tape all 3. But its going to be alot easier to cut a piece of tape that size, and should have more stick power as well.

4. You can also physically remove the 1-3rd pins on your SAS adapter cable set, info on that here.

5. One that looks even a bit less maintenance is you get an extension cable, you can cut the first wire on your SATA power connector same link as above here. I would not cut the actual cable from your PSU.

6. You can also simply use the Molex to SATA adapters, which don't supply the 3.3v. The problem with this is, if your getting one of these newer drives, you probably have a newer PSU, and maybe even a bunch of disks (BOD :-)), so the newer PSU's have mostly SATA power connectors, and not Molex. So you don't want to overload your only Molex power line with more than say 3-5 drives, its too much for one line. SO you are probably better off utilizing your many SATA power lines if you have them.

Thanks to @Gantendo for pointing out this issue to begin with.