Using USB 3.0 to speed up transfer between USB 2.0 devices?
Problem
I've noticed that transfers between USB 2.0 drives are usually very slow. From what I understand, this is because all USB 2.0 devices connected to the same USB 2.0-host share the same 480Mb/s of bandwidth. Is it possible to speed this up by using USB 3.0, ie connecting both drives to a USB 3.0 controller (like a USB 3.0 ExpressCard adapter)? In other words, do USB2 devices get the full, unshared bandwidth each on a USB3 host?
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1 Fix
Fix for: Using USB 3.0 to speed up transfer between USB 2.0 devices?
According to the USB3 specification from here, USB2 functionality on USB3 hosts/hubs does not change. Therefore, (putting power issues aside) USB2 devices still operate with a broadcast method, meaning it will share the same old USB speed bandwidth with all other USB2 devices on the same host/hub. USB2 devices will not have USB3 capacity available to it, as the SuperSpeed USB3 capacity is on different wires that are not connected to USB2 devices. Also, keep in mind each USB port may or may not …
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