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Ext. HD Data Transfer

If a Pre USB3 Ext HD is Transferring data to a USB3 Ext. HD. Will the data transfer quicker if both a connected to USB3 ports. Or, is the data transfer speed limited by the 10 year old drive?

Comments

  • arciere
    arciere Posts: 1,361 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    It's limited by the drive.

    Even with USB3-compatible drives, only SSD drives benefit from the faster speed, any other HDD will see no difference between a USB 2 and a USB 3
  • sal_III
    sal_III Posts: 1,953 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 1,000 Posts
    If you have the ports connect them both to USB 3 just in case. Although if the older drive is USB 2 itself it won't make any difference.
    arciere wrote: »
    It's limited by the drive.

    Even with USB3-compatible drives, only SSD drives benefit from the faster speed, any other HDD will see no difference between a USB 2 and a USB 3
    Not necessarily (although likely to be the case in this specific situation).

    There are plenty of 100MB/s+ HDDs, where USB 2 with it's theoretical limit is 60 MB/s (480 Mbit/s) will be the bottleneck.
  • arciere
    arciere Posts: 1,361 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    sal_III wrote: »
    Not necessarily (although likely to be the case in this specific situation).

    There are plenty of 100MB/s+ HDDs, where USB 2 with it's theoretical limit is 60 MB/s (480 Mbit/s) will be the bottleneck.
    Yes, you are correct. I didn't go into details because drives that are capable of 100 MBps speeds are usually desktop drives and not external drives. But yes, you may see increased performances with some HDD and USB 3.
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