How to connect USB 3.0 pendrives?

Solution 1:

First of all, USB 3.0 is a communication/plug/cable standard and no file system, so you can't "format" anything to USB 3.0 or USB 2.0!

Furthermore, the data transfer rate always depends on the slowest device in the connection. So no matter if you use a 3.0 device on a 2.0 port or a 2.0 device on a 3.0 port or even both 3.0 device and port, but with a 2.0 hub in between, you always only get 2.0 speed.

Now a 3.0 USB port should be downwards-compatible with other devices and recognize even 1.1 drives, but the other way round that could be a problem. A 2.0 port does not automatically have to recognize 3.0 devices, unless they offer a compatibility feature (written on the packaging, something like "USB 2.0 compatible" - most devices have this). You could check whether your drive offers such a feature or not.

To troubleshoot not recognized USB devices in general, you check the lsusb output before plugging in the device, wait a minute (!) and then check the lsusb output again. The interesting thing is whether any additional lines showed up.

If nothing changes after you plugged in the device, it is not recognized as USB device, but maybe the kernel could at least detect it in any way. To check this, first clear the kernel message buffer with sudo dmesg --clear. Then plug in the USB device, wait a minute (!) and check the output of dmesg. Anything related to USB is interesting for your problem and might highlight the cause why it is not recognized properly. If you see no interesting line even there, I would have to say I see no more hope for your device on that machine...