Forever preparing and never backing up

First... thanks in advance for any help!
Like the title says... all my Time Machine seems to want to do is forever prepare and never actually back up to the time machine disk. My last back up was Nov 18 and that was perfect, but now I can not. I took this out of the system.log:
Nov 25 09:44:43 mybook /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[476]: Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonEventDBUntrustable|
Any suggestions?

The "preparing" stage in Time Machine is usually fast, because Time Machine uses a log of file system activities to know where to find changes that need to be backed up.
But there are things you can do to make that log untrustworthy. When Time Machine discovers the log MIGHT not be valid, it does a full scan of your file system to determine what really needs to be backed up. This can take a while. On my Powerbook (and with a firewire external Time Machine drive) it can result in a "preparing" stage that lasts 20 minutes. If you let Time Machine continue, it will eventually figure out what really needs to be added to the backup disk and will continue. This, of course, is better than just gambling the log is correct or just backing up EVERYTHING again even though only a few files might actually have changed (which would take much longer and consume more Time Machine disk space).
In these early days of Leopard installs, one of the most common things you can do that will make the log untrustworthy is booting from the Leopard install DVD. Each time you do that, the next time Time Machine runs it will discover that your hard drive MIGHT have been modified without the changes being reflected in the log. So it does the full scan -- a long "preparing" stage -- to insure it gets things right.

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Also, I can not find any of my audio books that I bought and downloaded thru iTunes, why?

For music purchased from iTunes you might be able to re-download it via the Purchased link under Quicklinks on the right-hand side of the iTunes store home page on your computer's iTunes.
For music copied from CDs, and for purchases if you can't redownload them, then there are some programs listed half-way down this page which should be able to copy them back from your iPod : https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3991
There is also this page for syncing to a new computer (which, in effect, you will be) : https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3141
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Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
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http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then repair the backup/TM drive.

HT3275 Backing up 87.6 MB of 87.6 MB' and never stops.

My time machine keeps backing up 87.6 MB of 87.6 MB again and again and again.
I erased my time capsule drive ('0'ing out never did complete - seemed to hang at the very last stage - but a quick erase seemed to work perfectly) as I wanted to start fresh after putting a bigger HD into my Macbook Pro.
I have 'verified' my backup with no errors shown.
I have deleted the 'in progress' file (more than once).
Now the time machine says: 'Backing up 87.6 MB of 87.6 MB' and never stops.
If I delete the 'in progress' file within the sparsebundle it just prepares the files and gets back to this point again.
I usually backup over wifi but have bee trouble shooting over ethernet connection.
I just checked and it changed to 'backing up 130 MB of 130 MB' and now 'backing up 131.9 MB of 131.9 MB'. But it has been working continuously ever since I manually started the backup (again) this morning - without finishing or re-calculating anything.
Cant find any solution in the pondini FAQ.
system.log: (aaaaaaaa and xx@xxx substituted for the actual names)
Feb 7 12:10:32 aaaaaaaa com.apple.backupd[550]: Starting standard backup
Feb 7 12:10:32 aaaaaaaa com.apple.backupd[550]: Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/AirPort%20Disk
Feb 7 12:10:32 aaaaaaaa com.apple.backupd[550]: Mounted network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/AirPort%20Disk
Feb 7 12:10:42 aaaaaaaa com.apple.backupd[550]: QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
Feb 7 12:10:45 aaaaaaaa com.apple.backupd[550]: Disk image /Volumes/AirPort Disk-1/aaaaaaaa.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Feb 7 12:10:45 aaaaaaaa com.apple.backupd[550]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Feb 7 12:16:52 aaaaaaaa com.apple.backupd[550]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 938.4 MB requested (including padding), 542.56 GB available
Any ideas? Thanks.
Model Name:    MacBook Pro
Model Identifier:    MacBookPro5,4
Processor Name:    Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:    2.53 GHz
Number Of Processors:    1
Total Number Of Cores:    2
L2 Cache:    3 MB
Memory:    8 GB
Bus Speed:    1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version:    MBP53.00AC.B03
SMC Version (system):    1.49f2
System Software Overview:
System Version:    Mac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549)
Kernel Version:    Darwin 10.8.0
Boot Volume:    1TBDrive
Boot Mode:    Normal
Secure Virtual Memory:    Enabled
64-bit Kernel and Extensions:    Yes
Message was edited by: hangingbyathread
Message was edited by: hangingbyathread

Despite having little faith in getting a resolution I thought I'd post my latest update (in case anyone else is suffering the same fate).
I guess I will take everything down to an Apple store and see if they can help.
I was having issues getting the Time Machine Buddy widget to load and realized that the 'Dash board' was not working at all so I deleted my dashboard preferences.
Once I got Time Machine Buddy working l looked up and saw that my time machine has given me the error message: " . . . Time Machine must create a new backup for you." !!!
I don't know/doubt that this was related to my backup issues but have now just finished a complete new backup after erasing my entire backup drive (once again).
I have excluded my drop box and google drive folders- just in case.
It seemed to be working OK (hardwired over ethernet).
BUT now Im back where I started.
I did notice that sometimes the number of MB being 'backed up' was continually, but slowly, growing yesterday. It went through numerous 'attempts' Eventually it got to 'cleaning up'. And did for well over an hour……. (I went to bed)
I tried again this evening and it once again made a number of backups.
My time machine says that the oldest backup is 4pm yesterday (even though, yesterday it had an older backup from the night before) and my most recent was yesterday at 11:49pm - and it ran all night!!!!!
Here's the last of many, many, many 'buddy' logs(which backup I just cancelled):
Starting standard backup
Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://xxxx@xxxxxxx._afpovertcp._tcp.local/AirPort%20Disk
Mounted network destination using URL: afp://xxxx@xxxxxxx._afpovertcp._tcp.local/AirPort%20Disk
QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
Disk image /Volumes/AirPort Disk/yyyyyyyyyyyyy.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.54 GB requested (including padding), 548.52 GB available
Copied 86.5 MB of 576.9 MB, 20331 of 69709 items
Copied 288.5 MB of 576.9 MB, 348008 of 348008 items
Copied 348426 files (663.1 MB) from volume 1TBDrive.
No pre-backup thinning needed: 933.6 MB requested (including padding), 548.52 GB available
Copied 83.6 MB of 83.6 MB, 1954 of 41494 items
Copied 2896 files (83.6 MB) from volume 1TBDrive.
Backup canceled.
Ejected Time Machine disk image.
Ejected Time Machine network volume.

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iTunes Store: About In-App Purchases
How to report an issue with Your iTunes Store purchase
Message was edited by: b j t

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My macbook pro hard drive went bad and i bought a new one and installed it. Now i have the old corrupted hard drive in my hand and i am looking to recover my files from it, any suggestions please? too bad i never backed them up.

After you have installed the OSX on the new HDD in your MBP, install the old HDD in an enclosure and connect it to your MBP via USB. Then try to drag and drop your data to the new HDD.
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- If you used PhotoStream then try getting photos only from your PhotoStream. See that topic of:
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Forever preparing and never backing up

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