New to Mac and to SuperDuper - Need a little help

[dnanian]

Ok. Here's the problem: you're using FileVault. And, FileVault stores all your files in one gigantic file, so no excludes will work. On top of that, as documented, you really should log out of your FileVault account, and into a non-FV account, when you back up.

While it's backing up your FV account, it's going to look unresponsive, because it's copying one HUGE file (your entire Home is in a file).

Hope that makes sense.