Time Machine Error "Unable to complete backup"

I have not backed up my hard drive for about 30 days. When I plug my external hard drive in, Time Machine "prepares backup" for a while, then gives me the following message:
*Time Machine Error*
Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume.
I tried unplugging and re-plugging, rebooting my computer, trashing the ".inprogress" backup file and restarting. It did not help. While it time machine is preparing the backup, my computer runs crazy slow, with the rainbow pinwheel spinning for about 5-10 seconds just about every time I click the mouse, in any program.
Per someone's suggestion, I put "sudo grep backupd /var/log/system.log" into terminal, and this is what came up:
"No pre-backup thinning needed: 4.98 GB requested (including padding), 70.16 GB available
Waiting for index to be ready (906 > 0)
Unable to rebuild path cache for source item. Partial source path:
Indexing a file failed. Returned -12 for: /Applications/iChat.app, /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1/Backups.backupdb/My Computer (2)/2011-01-13-113417.inProgress/CB0D491E-EF04-48A0-9AE9-32AE43E9209C/Macintosh HD/Applications/iChat.app
Aborting backup because indexing a file failed.
Stopping backup."
This time, it was apparently iChat, but in each of the three times I've tried to backup and gotten this error message, a different file has been the culprit for the indexing error.
Any suggestions?

orchestr wrote:
Indexing a file failed. Returned -12
see [this_|http://web.me.com/pondini/TimeMachine/C3.html] user tip by Pondini.
JGG

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