Question about USB 3.0 on MBP
So I received 2 USB 3.0 flash drives for Christmas. I have a mid-2011 MBP. I don’t have a USB 3.0 port. Is there any way to achieve the 3.0 transfer speed without buying a whole new computer?
I just plugged mine in and it worked on the spot, I didn’t have to do anything.
It works, but the transfer rate is that of my other 2.0 flash drives. Not achieving the 3.0 speeds.
not gonna happen … it’s a hardware limitation
Unfortunately, that’s the best you’re gonna get. USB is backward-compatible, but not the other way around.
R.I.P
Won’t work with older Mac
Can anyone recommend a fast (if that’s even possible) 2.0 flash drive?
I use some Sandisk ones that are decently quick
The USB 2.0 technology has pretty much matured, so most devices at this point are going to have roughly the same transfer rates (~300 MB per second). Just stick with the major manufacturers and you can’t go wrong.
Not gonna lie, though, USB 3.0 is pretty sweet… about 4 GB per second 
Real world though its only around Twice as fast as USB2.0 drives
If I swap out my regular hard drive for an SSD, will I see a speed increase in my transfers to 2.0 flash drives?
Nope. Your hard drive is still faster than USB2.0.
Besides, using USB 3.0 drives with USB 2.0 ports doesn’t really matter, at least you’re maxing out the bandwidth of your USB controller (which isn’t a bad thing).
My Sandisk USB 3.0 stick goes at ~ 180MB/sec (megabytes) for large files, which is over 5 times the maximum for USB 2.0
One way of adding USB 3.0 to a 2011 Macbook would be to buy a Thunderbolt dock, but they’re quite expensive.