Can't restore from Time Machine back ups

I began having problems with my 2 year old iMac which was not corrected with a re-install of Snow Leopard from the Installer disk.
I decided to restore my startup drive from a Time Machine backup. I followed the procedures. I selected the particular back up to restore from. Restore began and indicated that it would take about 2 hours and 40 minutes. When I came back to check 4 hours later, the progress bar was completely filled in but the text below it says:
"Restoring files (104.4%)
Time remaining: 1690214873 hours and 30 mins"
No progress seems to be going on. But if I just click the mouse I can hear my disks go into action and the numbers start changing on the time remaining for a few seconds and then everything stops.
I have repeated this experience twice now, each time using a different Time Machine backup.
Any ideas?
Thanks.
John

try repairing the TM drive with disk utility on the install DVD, any errors? also, reformat the internal drive using the partition tab in disk utility on the install DVD (don't use the erase tab). then try restoring again. if nothing helps then you'll have to erase the drive again and reinstall SL from scratch. then migrate from the TM backup manually. this is quite tedious but there is nothing else to do if the restore utility is not working.
see this link on what to restore in your home directory.
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=6185507
one correction to this link.
ical data is stored in ~/library/calendars.

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