I’ve done this many times! A note, for extra carefulness, you can do the long SMART test on the disk before you add it to the array, or do the manufacturers diagnostic suite in it by plugging it into a SATA port on a PC first just to be extra careful, and also make sure there aren’t any firmware updates.

A lot of commercial kubernetes backup tools incorporate Velero for portions of their protection methods too!

He said torrenting movies and games right in the OP…