I am trying to delete a user account but attempt locks up system prefs

I have been trying to delete a user account in 10.9.1 (Mavericks) on a 2009 Mac Pro. The problem is that System Prefs never completes the "archive account" and when check which processes are using up CPU time I find that writeprefs is pegged at 100% and has stayed at that level for seven hours plus. Of course the account is never removed and the only way of restarting the machine is to force quit system prefs after which the reboot works. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Do you really need to archive the user folder?
linc, that would be desirable but not absolutely essential.  And, thank you for your swift response!

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