USB connected to VM

Hi, I'm new to VMware but I hope this is simple.

I have a 2008 VM server with 3 external usb hard drives (one is 3.0 and two are 2.0 usb) connected to it already and these are used for backup purposes.

All I want is to replace them with three usb 3.0 external drives.

So do I just eject these drives from the server, shut it down, unplug the old ones, connect the new ones and start the VM again?

Or do I need to remove the existing USB drives from the VM and then add the new ones?

Not really sure how to go about it.

Thanks