Time machine file transfer very slow during OSX 10.7 re-install

Question

I am using a macbook pro, and was running 10.7. (not sure exact version, and cannot look now, but should have been up to date)  I tried the free upgrade to Mavericks, but it failed and said I had a disk error.  At this point I could not boot back to 10.7 so I booted with apple-R.  I tried to do a repair from disk utility but that failed so I erased my hard drive.  Then I proceeded with an install of 10.7, which proceeded fine.  I got  to a point where it asked about transferring files, (forget the exact wording) and I said to use my time machine backup (from right before I tried the upgrade - backup was 80GB) and I started that.  It has been 16 hours and it still has not finished.  The external hard drive (Lacie)  clicks / whirs, and I see signs of very slow progress... (seems to be at about 80% now judging by the progress bar) but it can go hours without any noticeable change.  The "time remaining" information is variable -- going up and down -- and is clearly not correct-- has said 1.5 to 2.5 hours for the last 12 hours 
Any ideas?  should I just wait a few more days     should I abort and restart the file transfer (if so, what is the best way to do this?)
I cannot provide details on the computer since it is still busily restoring (I hope), but it is roughly 3-4 years old, lots of free space on hard drive (>100GB),

Answer 1

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
          SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
          View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
In the top right corner of the Console window, there's a search box labeled Filter. Initially the words "String Matching" are shown in that box. Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes.) You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard."
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Note the timestamp of the last "Starting" message that corresponds to the beginning of an an abnormal backup. Now
CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
so that all messages are showing, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
☞ If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the text field.
☞ The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
☞ Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.