Time Machine Backup Soooo Slow

I've been having no luck getting a full backup with Time Machine. At one time was working but then things just fell apart. I've done the reformatting correctly but things always seem to hang and nothing in the log. Now it started at 6:22 PM and at 10:21 PM I'm only at 6.7 MB of 198.45 GB backed up using FireWire (cable is good). Here is the log below ... normally this would take only minutes ... what could be wrong? Backing to a 1 TB La Cie from the Apple Store with a 599 GB partition for the iMac backup. The remaining partition has not been used.
Oct 4 18:22:40 Barry-Kanes-Computer-761 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[3716]: Backup requested by user
Oct 4 18:22:40 Barry-Kanes-Computer-761 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[3716]: Starting standard backup
Oct 4 18:22:40 Barry-Kanes-Computer-761 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[3716]: Backing up to: /Volumes/iMac - Backup/Backups.backupdb
Oct 4 18:22:44 Barry-Kanes-Computer-761 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[3716]: Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Oct 4 18:22:45 Barry-Kanes-Computer-761 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[3716]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 238.33 GB requested (including padding), 570.46 GB available

This morning it's hanging at 158.95 GB of 198 GB. Nothing in the log for backupd but I not the System log is cranking out error messages since about 5 am that look like this:
Oct 5 08:06:04 Barry-Kanes-Computer-761 com.apple.launchd[1] (0x10af00.mdworker[11494]): Exited abnormally: Bus error
Oct 5 08:06:04 Barry-Kanes-Computer-761 ReportCrash[11495]: Saved crashreport to /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/mdworker2008-10-05-080557Barry-Kanes-Computer-761.crash using uid: 0 gid: 0, euid: 0 egid: 0
Oct 5 08:06:14 Barry-Kanes-Computer-761 ReportCrash[11497]: Formulating crash report for process mdworker[11496]
Oct 5 08:06:16 Barry-Kanes-Computer-761 com.apple.launchd[1] (0x10af00.mdworker[11496]): Exited abnormally: Bus error
Oct 5 08:06:16 Barry-Kanes-Computer-761 ReportCrash[11497]: Saved crashreport to /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/mdworker2008-10-05-080609Barry-Kanes-Computer-761.crash using uid: 0 gid: 0, euid: 0 egid: 0
Is there some other process the has run amok and is taking up all the system? Not sure what this log means.

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    Do these errors indicate that my Time Machine backups located in the Backups.backupdb are corrupt, or is the external hard drive corrupt and failing?
    The Time Machine backups are on a Maxtor OneTouch, and from what I've read, they're prone to an early demise. I've also recently noticed that my Time Machine backups started slowing. For example, I would plug in my external hard drive and if 1.3GB needed to be backed up, it would stall at 300 MB before jumping to 700 MB, stall again, then jump to 900 MB. That could be a sign of a failing hard drive, correct? If the external hard drive is failing, I can purchase a new eternal hard drive then copy the Backups.backupdb to the new hard drive, correct?
    However, if Backups.backupdb is corrupt, then from what I understand, I would have to start fresh. I would prefer to not start fresh unless there's no other option, as I would be losing almost three years worth of Time Machine backups.
    Any guidance is appreciated. Thanks!

    ali_baba7 wrote:
    2010-12-29 21:20:22 -0800: Invalid node structure
    2010-12-29 21:20:22 -0800: Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
    It's possible a heavy-duty 3rd-party utility such as +Disk Warrior+ can fix that. It's about $100, and there's no guarantee, but it's probably a good investment for the future.
    Do these errors indicate that my Time Machine backups located in the Backups.backupdb are corrupt, or is the external hard drive corrupt and failing?
    The structure of the file system is damaged.
    That may have been caused by the disk beginning to fail, but there's no way to tell for sure until you erase and reformat the disk and try to use it.
    I've also recently noticed that my Time Machine backups started slowing. For example, I would plug in my external hard drive and if 1.3GB needed to be backed up, it would stall at 300 MB before jumping to 700 MB, stall again, then jump to 900 MB. That could be a sign of a failing hard drive, correct?
    It could, but it could also be whatever's wrong with the file structure.
    If the external hard drive is failing, I can purchase a new eternal hard drive then copy the Backups.backupdb to the new hard drive, correct?
    No. You can't copy corrupted backups. They're all linked together, like a database, so if anything's damaged, the whole set is suspect, and can't be copied.
    There are a couple of options:
    If the disk is physically ok, and the directory damage was recent, you might be able to restore from an earlier backup. But since you noticed problems some time ago, the damage may not be recent.
    Or, you might be able to get up and running by just installing OSX from your SL Install disk (and the 10.6.5 "combo" update). You'll be missing whatever wasn't restored in that last 5 minutes or so. Things are restored in the same order they're listed by the Finder, so it will be the last things in the last user account. You should be able to figure out where it stopped, check or delete the very last file (likely incomplete) and selectively restore as many of the remaining things as you can, via the "Star Wars" display.
    Just to make things more difficult, if the disk is failing, the more you use it, the more likely it is to get worse or fail completely.
    So your safest bet may be to install OSX, then download and install the 10.6.5 "combo" update. Info and download available at: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1324 Be sure to do a +Repair Permissions+ via Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder) afterwards. Then recover what you can.

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