[dmckeon]

Depending on OS, you might consider:

    rsync -aSH --delete --update /source/ /destination

if both file-systems are Unix/Linux.

-S Sparse files remain sparse.

-H Hard links are preserved. Caveat: Big O(inodes).

Note the trailing slash on /source/ unless you want to copy to /destination/source/.

-W does not seem like a win for your local-to-local use case but may be the default:

http://rsync.samba.org/ftp/rsync/rsync.html