All USB 2 or "High Speed" peripherals will work on a USB1(.1) port.
However, the performance level will be slow. Copying 1-2 Gigabytes
of data may take 10 minutes or more.
It may be worth investing in a PCI based USB 2 card. If you are using
a notebook you can purchase a USB2 PC Card. The PCI card for a
desktop would only be ~$20 and the notebook unit higher at around a
~$40-50 price.