Run a Thunderbolt 2 hard drive over the Thunderbolt port of the Late 2011 17" model MacBook Pro?

I would like to know if I can run a Thunderbolt 2 hard drive over the Thunderbolt port of my 17" Late-2011 MacBook Pro.

Would you please let me know if your answer is based on actual experience with the same model MacBook Pro and a Thunderbolt 2 drive, or if your answer is based on reasoning.

The Thunderbolt port would run at a maximum 10 Gbps, while the newer Thunderbolt 2 cables and drives could run at a maximum 20 Gbps, so I need to know if the version 2 cables and drives are backward compatible.

The technical specs of my MacBook Pro say

Connections and expansion: ... Thunderbolt port (up to 10 Gbps)

[From URL MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2011) - Technical Specifications]

Wikipedia also reports here that

In February 2011, Apple introduced its new line of MacBook Pro notebook computers and announced that the technology's commercial name would be Thunderbolt, with MacBook Pros being the first machines to feature the new I/O technology.

Currently I am running an external display through this Thunderbolt port using the Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter. System Information reports this:

Thunderbolt Bus:

Vendor Name: Apple Inc.

Device Name: MacBook Pro

UID: 0x0001000A19976B40

Firmware Version: 22.1

Port:

Status: No device connected

Link Status: 0x100

Port Micro Firmware Version: 2.1.3

My configuration: 17" Late 2011 MacBook Pro (model MacBookPro8,3); 2.5 GHz i7 CPU; 16 GB RAM; OS X 10.8.5 Mountain Lion.

With thanks in advance for your help,

WaiGuo Guizi 外国鬼子