ReadyNAS Duo won't boot after 4.1.9 upgrade #19206828

I extracted the disk from the RN and put it into a USB box. I connected to a Linux (Ubuntu) system and did a low level format and partition. Then I put it back into the RN and did a OS reinstall. It eventually failed with a bunch of ATA errors. So, then I took it back out of the RN, put it back into the USB box and again connected it to my Linux system. This time I'm running a read write test using "badblocks" utility (badblocks -b 4096 -p 4 -c 16384 -w -s /dev/sdb1). I'm going on pass # 3 and have yet to see an error. This disk just isn't that old and it's passing all my disk tests external to the ReadyNAS. The disk was also recently rebooted prior to my "upgrade to 4.1.9 and it booted and was running fine under 4.1.8. Come on guys ... I know I may be missing something, but when "x" is working and you change "y" and then "x" no longer works, it's usually due to "y".