RN2100 - Dead drives, replaced but still showing 'Dead'

Have you tried accessing the boot menu using the hardware?
Try the factory default again:
See
http://www.readynas.com/kb/faq/boot/how ... on15002100

You do realise that whatever data was on the volume is now gone. Your approach suggests you do.

Thanks, I have tried that factory default from the boot menu using the hardware but I had a helper pushing the buttons. I will try that again. And yes, fully aware I'll lose everything. Fortunately, this was the backup of my main 2100.

So, bottom line... a true Factory Default from the boot menu using the hardware buttons should kick this back in to brand new state?

Should.
You should perhaps test the remaining 2 older drives using vendor tools.
You may want to factory default with only 1 drive in initially, just to make sure there isn't some other hardware problem. If it's successful then power down, add all disks and factory default again.

4.2.26 is out, I see you are on 4.2.25.

viewtopic.php?f=51&t=75176

I noticed I was at 4.2.25 and when attempting to also try "Update" it just sat there. I will pull all but one drive out and try the factory default. Thank you so much for all of your help, I'll update you tomorrow.

Thanks!

I have just noticed something in your first post; that you inserted the new drives, then powered up.
I think this is the problem, you should have hot added the drives, preferably one at a time, allowing resync.

Try a reboot first.
If that doesn't work, hot remove 1 of the drives, wait a few minutes or for an alert, then reinsert it with the NAS on.

Let us know what happens.

Ah, ok. I was wondering if that was something I should not have done (powering down and swapping out). I know that it says all over the place that you can hot-swap all day long but for some reason, the old IT guy in my head told me to power it down :)

I'll go the route you just suggested. Now... since both new drives are still showing "dead", that makes me think it has no idea I put new drives in there. I'll go one step further and mention that when I use Raidar, it would appear that all 4 drives are green lit and you can actually see the new part number for those 2 new drives are slightly different than the original 2 that are still in there. So, it seems Raidar sees the new drives but that is it. And in Raidar, the green light under the Volume column is not there. But, all 4 drive lights are showing green lit and again, the 2 new drives have the slightly different part number.

It can't be normal that I've lost all volume information, can it?