[dnanian]

Theoretical speeds (1GB/min) and "real" speeds are entirely different things, Pasha. A streaming speed is also going to be faster than the "over three hundred thousand tiny files and their metadata" case that you're doing with SuperDuper. So, no -- this is the speed you're going to get with this drive on this Mac. We're going as fast as we can get it to go.

On a typical Intel Mac, on a full backup, a USB drive will go about 4-8MB/s overall. A FireWire drive will go about 8-12MB/s. On a smart update, it'll go a lot faster, of course.