How can I switch from a RAID1 md device, to a regular partition?
You can't 'migrate' from md <-> non-md
You should remove the md tag (look at man mdadm and --zero-superblock) before running mkfs though.
The superblock can be stored at various locations on disk so simply wiping the first few bytes or remaking the partition table won't work reliably.
Or, should I just fail the two other drives in the array and let it stay a RAID1 md device with just 1 drive in it?
You could do that. A bit messy but not a real problem. Also allows you to add another device later.
Can I clobber it and change the partition type of those partitions to regular filesystem partitions and NOT damage the big RAID5 partition?
Yes.
Also note the old partition table mark (0xfd) is deprecated which is rational but kinda annoying - the suggestion is to use 0xda now.
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