Serial Connection to Hard Drive

[BreakfeastSerial]

Hello!

I am trying to do a personal project involving forensics on a HDD. For part of the project I need to get a serial terminal to a hard drive. Unfortunately, for all my efforts I have been unsuccessful. I was wondering if there was any (free) tools for troubleshooting, or any expert troubleshooting advice from people that have been more successful then me. Or any resources that might be helpful. I am very new at this sort of thing and have been following this guide: http://nixware.net/fix-bricked-seagate-st31000340as-hard-disk-bsy-error.

Specifications:
HDD = ST3250312AS
I use this https://www.amazon.com/Serial-Adapter-Signal-Prolific-Windows/dp/B07R8BQYW1/ref=sr_1_17?dchild=1&keywords=PL2303HX+USB+to+UART+TTL&qid=1597475431&sr=8-17 to try to get the serial connection.
I tried both the drivers on the company site, and the one mentioned in the guide mentioned earlier. Neither gave errors but neither worked (obviously).

If you would like to help but need more info, let me know and I would be happy to provide if possible.

Thanks!

[ghimpe--]

Bridge the Tx and Rx on the adapter. If the adapter is working you should see an echo of the characters you type in the terminal.

[fzabkar]

You just need ground, Rx and Tx. Connect Rx to Tx and verify that a loopback test works. You should see each typed character echoed on your screen.

You should be able to swap Tx and Rx without doing any harm.