[dnanian]

Well, that certainly seems like an issue with the HDD, yes. A fast SSD (they're not that expensive - 1TB is less than $70 these days) should resolve that issue.

With regard to encryption - my general feeling is that if you're not traveling with the backup, it's incredibly unlikely that someone breaking into your house is doing so to get your backup drive...and if they are, it's *quite* likely that information around your house, on your desk, in your trash, etc. is more likely to be 'useful'.

Note, too, that sensitive information like your keychain is encrypted anyway... so getting anything "useful" off the backup, to a casual thief, is unlikely.

Beyond that, encrypting the backup means data recovery, should you need to perform it, becomes nearly impossible. Given a backup is supposed to be a safety measure, I endeavor to ensure it's as safe as possible in a typical home setup. (I'm talking about local backups here - not 'cloud'.)

I know we're all the stars of our own spy movie, but in general no one really cares about your backup...except you. Maximizing its usefulness is key.

Finally, part of the reason you're making a "bootable style" backup is to ensure you have a backup that's redundant, and simpler, should the more complex schemes like Time Machine become corrupt or fail in some way. The more backups using different devices and software, the better.

That's why I advice three levels of protection in my blog post - SuperDuper, Time Machine and Cloud. Between the three, it's quite unlikely you'll lose data...and the point is to avoid exactly that.

Installing over a system (a basic OS reinstall) really shiouldn't whack your secure token...it's something users do all the time, leaving aside the backup.