External Hard Drive - USB 3.0/2.0/1.0 Question

[Dr Fear 1290]

My MIL has this old PC that has a large amount of scanned docs on it that I need to move.  I forgot to check what USB ports it had this past weekend but I did see that it was running Windows XP with a 2002 service pack, though I would guess that that it was manufactured after that and never updated.  My plan is to buy an external hard drive to copy everything, but I am worried that it might not have USB 2.0 and all the HDs I am seeing only say 3.0 w/ 2.0 backwards compatibility. I know I can pull out the the drive and put into an enclosure, by the MIL is hesitant to let me do that.  Thoughts?

[Handcruser 2815]

Doesnt matter. 3.0 will work on 1.0 just slower

[elfenix 34748]

it'll work it'll just be really slow.

[Dr Fear 1290]

Thanks!