XigmaNAS

I have a long running and trusty FREENAS 7.2 (Sardaukar) server with a single RAID1 array, UFS. One of the 2 disks has died and I don't have a spare of the same type so a replace/rebuild is not possible. I want to:
- buy 3 new drives (so I don't get in this mess again)
- remove old drives
- remove old USB stick
- create new USB with NAS4Free 9.2
- create new RAID1 with 2 new drives (larger)
- recreate file system structure
- move/restore files from surviving old disk

Questions:
-what is current "best practice" for file system and configuration of RAID1? (I will dig further into the forums but would appreciate pointers)
-will the other drive simply be recognized and mounted if it's in the new system?
- if not, how can I move/restore these files?

Please help - my family photos are on the surviving disk and I will be in sheep dip if I fail.

FreeNAS 0.7.2 (revision 8191) i386-embedded
AAMMII OEMRSDTA Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 430 @ 1.80GHz 1016MiB RAM

port=2 interface=0 Intel ICH7 UDMA100 controller Intel 82801GB/R (ICH7) USB
2.0 controller UHCI (generic) USB controller RTL8201L 10/100 media
interface

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Subject:
ad4 is failing

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Description:
ad4 went offline. shut down /power cycle /restart and ad4 is back.

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thanks to the forum tools, I found a post from nearly 2 years ago on the same subject. viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2230&p=11140#p11140

At this point, I'm wondering what's changed since the excellent, detailed reply was provided before.

a bit more information:
Software RAID information and status

Geom name: GoldenbearRAID1
State: DEGRADED
Components: 2
Balance: round-robin
Slice: 4096
Flags: NONE
GenID: 0
SyncID: 2
ID: 3142921648
Providers:
1. Name: mirror/GoldenbearRAID1
Mediasize: 1000204885504 (932G)
Sectorsize: 512
Mode: r2w1e2
Consumers:
1. Name: ad6
Mediasize: 1000204886016 (932G)
Sectorsize: 512
Mode: r1w1e1
State: ACTIVE
Priority: 0
Flags: NONE
GenID: 0
SyncID: 2
ID: 2138273160
2. Name: ad4
Mediasize: 1000204886016 (932G)
Sectorsize: 512
Mode: r1w1e1
State: SYNCHRONIZING
Priority: 1
Flags: DIRTY, SYNCHRONIZING
GenID: 0
SyncID: 2
Synchronized: 10%
ID: 3649355824

Disk File system Name Description Status
/dev/mirror/GoldenbearRAID1p1 ufs GoldenbearA Redundant Disk Array A OK

I worry about doing too much at once

my suggestion
do not monkey with the working FN-7
temporary set up N4F on loaner hardware with the new drives
transfer data from the FN-7 to the N4F over the network
transfer the most important data first against impending further drive failure of the FN-7
when finished remove the FN-7 OS and drives, then move the N4F OS and Drives to the older hardware.
save the FN-7 OS and data drives through the new hardware burn in or longer.

worked for me