So, approx 2 months ago I upgraded my laptop to lion. My backups became noticeably slower - they were slow has hell before but in 10.7 they were just unbelievable. Think system lagging to the point of unusable - that slow or worse.
I did find a good solution: Disable spotlight services.
sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist
Considering I never use spotlight to find anything, its just wasted cpu cycles anyway.
My backups now take a small fraction of the time they used to take - few minutes at a time unless I pulled down something big ( think os patches or something )
My laptop ( 2008 macbook pro ) is now usable though I think I'm going to need to replace the fans and am considering replacing the hard drive since its about 5 years old already. Hmmm, ssd? http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-830-MZ-7PC512N-Internal-Laptop/dp/B005T3GPXO/ref=wl_it_dp_o_npd?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2K5BO82B7593V&colid=1HSSX1GJ9ZT27 or maybe one of the intel drives but I'm thinking of just saving the $400 or so.
