@mrrodge:
I tried to boot again and again, using the FreeBSD options for other kernels, none of which worked. Starting to panic that it was the SSD failing, I downloaded the USB installer and used the option 'Rescue Config.xml', which said it succeeded, BUT, where the hell does it rescue the xml to?! I tried booting a live CD for GhostBSD and mounted the USB, the Config file isn't there.
The "Rescue config.xml" option reads the configuration from the drive into memory, and then copies it back to the target drive when installing. To use it when swapping in a new disk, you'd have to have the old disk and new disk both connected, then pick the old disk to rescue from and choose the new disk when installing. If it worked, the new drive would have the configuration in the proper place after the installation finishes and it would come back up properly afterward.
The down side is that on 2.3.x and before, that option was not very robust. You'd have to try it 2-3x or more before it would work, if it worked at all. I've rewritten how it works in the new 2.4 installer and it now works every time I've tried it. That said, if the old drive really is dead, it still couldn't help.