Are you looking on the PD MGMT tab of the CTRL-R utility?  If not, and you are looking on the first/default tab (VD MGMT), no drives will show here until you configure the attached drives.

The battery message alone would not prevent it from detecting drives, but it might be a sign of something else going on.  I would suggest reseating the battery/cable and the RAID controller.

Do you see the drives on the PD MGMT tab in the CTRL_R utility (CTRL-N to go to the next tab)?

Is there a cable going from the backplane to the controller?  How many?  Which connectors?  Which slots to you have the drives in?  Do they work in other slots?

Yea I am looking in the CTRL-R Utility and it's not seeing the drives to set up a volume.

You really probably just need to check the first slot and the last slot, to make sure the problem isn't the cables.

I won't go into my lecture on using Certified and Enterprise drives right now, since you can't even get them detected, but just know that cheap Desktop drives can have significant problems on an Enterprise controller (although, like I said, it should still see them).  What is your controller firmware at (on the CTRL MGMT screen)?

Here is another photo

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeshelby/6130846306/size

s/l/in/photostream/

Oh and the Seagate drive is an enterprise drive, 73GB 15K Drive.

Once you eliminate the cable, then make sure to do the following:

- reseat controller card and cables (at both ends)

- reseat backplane power connector (you will need remove the fans to get to it) - to make sure your backplane/drives are actually getting power

- past that, I think you might be looking at replacing some hardware - the backplane or the controller (like I said, the battery thing might just be a sign of worse things going on, but as it seems to work fine other than seeing the drives, it could easily be a backplane problem).

I didn't reboot each time, I'll try that now but I have rebooted the machine a lot lately...

I am using  a brand new seagate drive and adding another new WD drive now, just came in. The one drive worked in another machine.

I am able to get into PD MGMT and look at all 3 screens. I have one drive in now and I have tried that drive in all the bays, none have allowed me to see the drive.

There are large images of the server on flick.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeshelby/6130291169/sizes/l/in/photostream/ 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeshelby/6130842592/sizes/l/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeshelby/6130294849/sizes/l/in/photostream/

I hope this helps... I have about 4 hours into this today alone.... 

So, you're cabled up ok (although you may consider reseating them ... and the controller).

Did you reboot each time you tried a different slot?

Even if using uncertified or desktop drives (rather than enterprise-class drives), the controller should still see them, but what drives are you using?  Can you verify the drives themselves are working at all?

I'll try that!

Well I have re seated everything with the RAID card and that didn't seem to help. I guess I am out of options...

I can't think of anything else.

Do the drive lights come on once the controller has entered CTRL-R?