How to fix a Time Machine hangup - Mac OS X Hints
Time Machine, while it does have a very usable interface, is inclined to get stuck sometimes.
Occasionally Time Machine seems to be stuck, but isn't really. When you first do a backup, or when you haven't backed up to a particular disk for ages (perhaps if you have been away on a trip), it can spend several hours 'preparing'. You can tell it is preparing because when you open the Time Machine preferences there is the little barber pole saying 'Preparing.'
The essence of the solution is to open up the backup media and find the file ending in '.inProgress' and then deleting that file. This will be on the backup volume inside the Backups.backupdb folder, and then in the subfolder for the machine and volume which was being backed up at the time of the hangup. These folders may be inside of a Sparse Disk Image if the backup goes to a Time Capsule or other network based backup volume. After rebooting the Mac Time Machine can then startup normally and perform its operations.
For more details and some screenshots see my blog.
[crarko adds: I haven't tested this one. It's worth it to read the blog entry and pay attention to the caveats and the screen shots contained therein. I've been fortunate to not have any problems with Time Machine, but I've had clients who experienced the hangup using a Time Capsule or an Xserve based backup.]
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