My Time Capsule won't back up. It's stuck on 'calculating time remaining'. Any ideas?

My Time Capsule started playing up again lately, it simply won't back up and it appears that nothing is actually backed up on it at all. I've had it for over two years and have had trouble with it in the past. I just wonder if it is faulty. Do I need to take it into an Apple shop to get techinical assistance or is it something I'm doing wrong with the back-ups?
Cheers,
Cathie

If you live near an apple store I am sure a Genius can check it for you.. but unless it brings up a fault condition, I doubt it is faulty.
The TC does nothing at all.. really it is a hard disk in a router.
TM is software on the computer and it can have loads of issues.
I strongly recommend using the info from pondini to help you analyse the problem.
I also recommend you download and try out some other backup utilities. The plain fact of it, TM is too complicated for its own good.
A simple way to check is to plug a USB drive into the computer and make a Time Machine backup to that drive instead of the TC.. if it works. the issue is more likely the network than anything.. and with each update more and more network problems are creeping in.
From your profile you are using Snow Leopard.. which was highly stable and reliable.. but my guess is the latest acting up is because you installed Mavericks???
TM widget. A1
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Because otherwise you have no idea what TM is actually doing.
A4, do a full TM reset.
A5 because long prep times are often the result of corrupt drives.
It can also be network.. is the TC plugged in by ethernet to the main router.. and by ethernet to the computer. If it is wireless joining the network, it will never be reliable.

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