On Finder Freeze/Relaunch All my desktop files & icons disappear

The title sums it up.
When ever my mac decides to go into spinning wheel mode and I have to force quit/relaunch finder, when I relaunch finder every desktop file & icon disappear.
At that point I'm forced to push the shutdown button on the tower and reboot, then all is well until the next time.
And the next time could be a day or a few days or a week. No rhyme or reason why.
Please help me solve this frustrating problem.
Thanks
497secrets

Cloud backup plans can slow your Mac down, and if used simultaneously with your Mac's networking, or you have an unreliable internet connection, could be the cause of your freezes. You may be better off seeing if turning off iCloud temporarily helps. This can especially be a problem with non-Apple routers whose firmware may not be up to date. Multitasking with backups can lead to corruption of your backups. Time Machine should only backup to hard drives twice the capacity of the original, otherwise it spends a lot of time trying to discover which archives to eraes to maintain room. Here are some other options:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-1992
Energy Saver can also create problems for backups, as it takes a moment for the Mac to recognize the connection. Use screen saver instead of Energy Saver when backing up. System Preferences lets you control both. Putting hard drives to sleep when backing up is ill advised.

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