loss of array after drive failure; problems with ST3500320AS

So I heard from tech suppot (L2) in Manilla, and found myself dealing with someone who must have been recently trained, and who (a) claimed that I could not have been asked to open the unit and replace the PSU last August (not true), (b) then, after looking at the service records, claimed that it must have been the chassis, not the PSU, that I had replaced (not true), and finally (c) claimed that there should have been no redundancy after the loss of one drive out of a three-drive X-raid array (also not true, and later corrected by her). When I made clear that the machine had interacted badly with now at least 3 (possibly 4) ST3500320AS's, she was on the verge of replacing the unit, which I suggested would not necessarily solve my principal problem (recovering the volume from the remaining two drives), and seemed not warranted, as the machine had started up fine with just a new 1TB WD.

Eventually she got back to me, telling me that she could escalate to L3 support on payment of $150 for a 1-year service contract (or something over $300 for a three year contract). When I asked whether, for the money, tech support would guarantee recovery, her answer was no, but after consulting with someone else she informed me that half the charge would be refunded if they couldn't. When I then asked what help this would buy me in figuring out why the device was chewing up 320AS's -- a defective unit, or a defective slot, or maybe just a not widely advertised incompatability with a drive on the HCL -- she didn't bother answering, and that was a day and a half ago.

So I tried following the directions for an OS reinstall; depress the reset switch on the upper right side of the back panel for around 5 seconds (I counted 6), then power up. The machine booted, at some point in the process reported "Checking root FS," but did not do anything the obviously seemed like a reinstalll; and ended up in the same non-functional unit; device appears on Raidar with lights for each drive but none for a volume; no led's lit on the device itself; accessible via frontview, but no volumes. On the other hand, it appears to respond to my old pwd, so I assume I have not succeeded at the reinstall. Correct? What did I do wrong?

I'd be happy if necessary to pay tech support, but only with the understanding that this is for recovery of the original volume, not just their best efforts; and also that they enlighten me about the cause of repeated crashes with these same model drives, and actually replace the unit if it turns out to be a defect in the mahine itself. It was, after all, shipped to me five years ago containing a known latent defect -- the PSU -- and at this point I would not put it past Netgear to be indulging in a lack of candor regarding difficulties with this particular model drive.