[dnanian]

To answer:

- Our scripts are totally readable by you, so if you'd like an exact list of what we're not copying, you need only look. But, the files we don't copy are temporary files, vm swap files, and other files that have no meaning across a restart. In addition, a few caches are not copied since they can interfere with startup should you bring the backup to a different machine -- all are automatically recreated.

- You don't get the 5GB back, no. It'll build up again over time. But, it's possible that you have some "junk" in the /Volumes folder. Try ejecting any external drives. Then, open /Volumes with Finder's "Go To Folder" command. Any folders there with the names of drives that aren't connected?