Please Help with a ReadyNAS X6

The cable and the port on the motherboard have both been verified as working (using a different disk from the 4 in the NAS). Two of the four NAS disks start clicking instantly when power is applied - I believe both of those disks are dead. The other two seem to spin up, but are never detected by the BIOS (let alone Windows). I tried adjusting the BIOS setting for SATA, and still had no luck. At this point, I think all 4 are dead (although it seems odd to me that they would have ALL died). They are about 7 years old, and have been in storage for at least two years, though, so who knows.

Anyway, I've purchased 2 new 2TB disks to replace the 4 bad ones. Since I'm basically starting from scratch, should I take any effort to upgrade the NAS firmware before initializing the disks?

Thanks again for your help-