Jul302012

Can I use USB 2.0 drive in a USB 3.0 Port?

Farhan Karim asks:

I am buying a Dell Inspiron 15z. It has 4 USB 3.0 ports, but I have two 8GB USB 2.0 flash drives. Will those work?


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System: Windows
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15 Answers -

0 votes

jessemanalansan

July 30, 2012

I think they would be compatible. :)

0 votes

Bruce Epper

July 30, 2012

Yes. USB 3.0 ports are backward compatible with USB 2.0 devices.

0 votes

Muhammad Ahmad

July 30, 2012

Yes you can use your USB 2.0 on USB 3.0 ports , they will work as they should but you may receive the notification that “This device can perform faster”

0 votes

ferdinan Sitohang

July 30, 2012

Yes it will work, the transfer rate will be adjustable into usb V.2

0 votes

David Downes

July 30, 2012

USB 2 will work in usb 3 as it is backwards compatible

0 votes

Mihovil Pletikos

July 30, 2012

yes but you won’t get usb 3.0 speeds

0 votes

Suman Acharya

July 30, 2012

yes but with all the features of usb 2.

0 votes

Sc Ling

July 30, 2012

Yes, you can but data reading and transferring would be at the USB 2.0 slower speed. You have to use a USB 3.0 devices in order to enjoy the higher 3.0 speed.

0 votes

Oron

July 30, 2012

Yes, USB 3.0 is backwards compatible with previous versions. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_3.0#Implementation_differences_compared_to_USB_2.0 .

On The Fly Productions; Maine Wedding DJ

I am a DJ. I just purchased an Audio Interface (Traktor Audio 2). I can’t get it to work at all with my USB 3.0 ports; I have Windows 7.I have been on the phone with “Native Intruments”, the manufacturer off and on and one of their techs finally fessed up and told me that they have been having serious issues with their current devices working with Windows 3.0.

http://www.native-instruments.com/en/support/online-help/compatibility/windows-7/
So as you can see 3.0 is not entirely backwards compatible. If you have a fix besides converting all of my ports to 2.0 speed I would thank you! I might even try that if I can be assured it wouldn’t cause more issues…

October 20, 2012
0 votes

Jeff Hamilton

July 30, 2012

Sure. They are backwards-compatible, and will work just fine!

0 votes

Alex Olariu

July 31, 2012

yes, usb technology is backwards compatible

0 votes

Moonlight M3lody

July 31, 2012

As far as I know, it’s usable, though your USB drive wouldn’t get the speed advantage

0 votes

Dewan Shrestha

August 1, 2012

yes usb 2.0 is compatible with usb3.0 port but usb 3.0 wouldnot be compatible with usb 2.0 port

0 votes

Pk Apratwad

August 2, 2012

yes why not

0 votes

Alex Perkins

October 9, 2012

Yes but you will only get USB 2.0 speeds of up to 480Mbits/s or 60 megabytes a second.