Stiil not clear: USB 2.0 or 3.0

[Duckling274]

Hello,
Just want to double check: a USB 3.0 Seagate External HDD with 3.0 cable WILL work on my laptop that has only USB 2.0< hey??

 

[Hawkeye22]

It will work.

The beauty of USB 3.0 is its backward compatibility with USB 2.0; you need a new cable and new host adapter (or, one of the Asus or Gigabyte motherboards that supports USB 3.0) to achieve USB 3.0, but you can still use the device on a USB 2.0 port and achieve typical USB 2.0 performance. In reducing some overhead requirements of USB (now, the interface only transmits data to the link and device that need it, so devices can go into low power state when not needed), the new incarnation now uses one-third the power of USB 2.0.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/186566/usb_30_finally_arrives.html

 

[game junky]

It will work.

The beauty of USB 3.0 is its backward compatibility with USB 2.0; you need a new cable and new host adapter (or, one of the Asus or Gigabyte motherboards that supports USB 3.0) to achieve USB 3.0, but you can still use the device on a USB 2.0 port and achieve typical USB 2.0 performance. In reducing some overhead requirements of USB (now, the interface only transmits data to the link and device that need it, so devices can go into low power state when not needed), the new incarnation now uses one-third the power of USB 2.0.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/186566/usb_30_finally_arrives.html

+1 - USB ports are backwards compatible. USB 3.0 ports usually will have a blue outside edge to make them easily identifiable.

I have a WD portable drive and use is on a 3.0 port on my desktop (not bad speeds) and a 2.0 port on my laptop and it works flawlessly.