Have not seen that thread pclab but I will read over it when I am off from work and ready to build the adapter to talk to the drive's firmware. I fully plan on trying a spare drive first.

Thanks!

I now have the USB to rs232 TTL adapter.

[power][data]{ T R x x }

For SATA

Means all I need to do is wire up the adapter Tx, Rx, and GND to the drive then move onto the PC settings and commands!

From soldering-required-232-seagate-terminal-parts-list-t10218.html

Same caveat applies :

1) wrong command - even a single letter - will make your drive FUBAR (if it's already not FUBAR) in a flash.
2) you need to know what to do and what the problem is. And this is the most difficult part

So said, happy experimenting.

Thank you, yes these points have been made before and are well understood.

So, I ask, are there any good places to start? I've got a Seagate 60gb 2.5 inch SATA drive I will practice on.