1 - You WILL need to format the drives to benefit from the advanced format, which means what ever data is on them will be destroyed, so if you don't have a back up, you WILL need to make one before commencing on the exercise
2 - With a JBOD configuration, failure of either disk WILL result in ALL of the data becoming inaccessible - you say you would struggle to save it elsewhere? How much of a struggle would it be to recreate it?
It really is your choice, but if you don't back it up, then expect to lose it at some point.