NAS update

Having tried pretty much every trick I can find on forums for kick-starting my NAS, it still refuses to work properly. This is one of the more disappointing aspects of eBay buying - if you need support for a product like this, it can be a frustrating experience. The vendor has been helpful and supplied a link that was used by him when he first started up the NAS, so I will follow that up probably later today.
The error I am getting may be a hardware issue - so I am now wondering if, although the three hard-drives I have put in the NAS are recognised by the system, whether it will only actually be able to format certain drives that are on the list of recommended drives for this equipment.
More to follow, fingers crossed and all that...