You are correct, this method only gets the unique HDD key of the current locked drive. If all you have is an FTDI 232 USB adapter this is a safe way to gain access through the Seagate HDD. Unlock, load up soft mod, relock, and gain full access. If you have an EEPROM reader, dumbing the contents of the EEPROM is definitely better. This was primarily an exercise in futility, there may be some good snippets in my code for working with Seagate HDD diagnostics in python. Or even dealing with bi-directional serial interfaces in general.