Hi Jeff, Thanks for the update.  It may be very well a drive compatibility issue.  I'm not saying that you can't use non Dell certified drives, because there plenty of customers who do. It just that we can't tell you the behavior expected from non Dell certified, nor are we able to troubleshoot them effectively due to communication issues with the controller.  Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.  I've seen them work but with odd errors on the controller log. You best best bet is to ensure that the controller itself is not faulty by grabbing some known good certified drives and testing it out by creating some temporary VD's.  By the way, for platform updates, you may also try to setup your network through the USC menu and do the Platform updates by hitting the ftp.dell.com source. Then followed by the OS deployment option. If your Lifecycle Controller(LCC) is updated, it should function well for system updates and OS installs.  Let us know what you find out, or how we can further assist. 
We have a R410 on which I am attempting to install a fresh RAID 6 with 4 new SAS drives. However, after configuring the RAID from the PERC 6/i BIOS utility, I tab to "OK", and the LEDs immediately flash amber on all the drives. From the utility, the new VD shows as offline, and under Physical Disks, all the drives say FAILED. All four drives are brand new. I've tried configuring the RAID with both the PERC BIOS utility and the USC interface, but with the exact same results. LEDs are green and appear good until RAID settings are applied, at which point all four drives have amber flashing LEDs. Once booted to the Server 2008 r2 install disk, Windows doesn't see the drives. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!
PowerEdge R410 new RAID initializing issue