dead boot device after upgrade?

[GTCG]

Greetings!

I decided to upgrade Freenas version 11.0 to version 11.2 via incremental upgrades. Before I started I took a backup of the most important files on the NAS, my configuration file, and seed.
Update from 11.0 to 11.1 went fine. When the system booted I immediately updated from 11.1 to 11.2.
Update from 11.1 to 11.2 went haywire: this is the screen I got after reboot:

The system boots from a USB stick and I believe the USB stick died or got corrupted. I have had this setup for 5 years and never had any issues.
I want to fix this in a proper way and I have a couple of questions:
- Would it be a good choice to replace the USB stick with a small SSD? It will be a lot faster and more reliable so I'm thinking of just getting myself a small SSD drive
- To resolve the actual problem: Can I solve this issue by installing Freenas 11.2 on the SSD and importing the config file and seed? Or can I install the latest version of Truenas on the SSD drive?
- Can I install Truenas without having to wipe my drives? It's a RAID5 configuration (4 x 3TB Toshiba disks)?

Specs:
- HP Proliant
- Celeron CPU
- 16 GB of RAM
- boot device: USB stick
- Currently on version 11.2

 

[NugentS]

- Would it be a good choice to replace the USB stick with a small SSD? It will be a lot faster and more reliable so I'm thinking of just getting myself a small SSD drive
Yes

- To resolve the actual problem: Can I solve this issue by installing Freenas 11.2 on the SSD and importing the config file and seed? Or can I install the latest version of Truenas on the SSD drive?
Should be able to yes

- Can I install Truenas without having to wipe my drives? It's a RAID5 configuration (4 x 3TB Toshiba disks)?
Yes

 

[Whattteva]

- Would it be a good choice to replace the USB stick with a small SSD? It will be a lot faster and more reliable so I'm thinking of just getting myself a small SSD drive

You replace USB stick for SSD not for speed. It's really more for longevity/reliability as USB sticks tend to die fast (like in your case). You're actually pretty lucky that it lasts 5 years. Mine died in a year.

- To resolve the actual problem: Can I solve this issue by installing Freenas 11.2 on the SSD and importing the config file and seed? Or can I install the latest version of Truenas on the SSD drive?

I think you can install the newest version and just import the config file, but if it didn't work, you can certainly go back to installing 11.2. I think you should be able to install latest one with no issuees though.

- Can I install Truenas without having to wipe my drives? It's a RAID5 configuration (4 x 3TB Toshiba disks)?

Boot disk failure is mostly a non-event since you can just reinstall and restore config file. Nothing on your data pool should be affected in any way.

 

[GTCG]

Thanks for the answers!