Determine disk order / boot with disk in wrong location

What version of RAIDiator were you running? Unless it's very old you should still be able to boot the NAS with the disks in the wrong order though reordering the disks is not recommended.

Do you have a copy of the logs (Status > Logs > Download all logs) downloaded?

thanks for the quick reply, i feel like a fool as i dont hv any logs or details of the version i was running as all this was actually stored on the nas :(

although i dont believe it was that old, i cant be 100% sure.

Is there a way to maybe tell which disk is which by mounting in windows or something?

No

Put the disks back in and try to boot the NAS.

Keep a close eye on the NAS using RAIDar (http://www.ReadyNAS.com/downloads)

presumably i could remove all drives, add a brand new disc, do factory reset. open up front view and check the firmware.

What version do i need for it to be safe with discs in different order?

Yes.

I don't know when NetGear made those changes. I'd probably be happy on a 4.1.x release

it appears to be 4.1.7.

cheers mdgm, it booted ok.

Download the logs (Status > Logs > Download all Logs) and post the contents of xraid_config.log