Trying to access time machine causes the macbook to freeze up

Question

I have a significant problem with iphoto. Now I would like to access my pictures using the time machine. This is what I do and what happens.
1) go to the dock and click on time machine icon
2) a bar with blue traveling stripe appears says connecting to time machine
3) after less than 1 or 2 minutes the bar turns grey and stops moving
4)now nothing works. there is nothing I can do but shut off the macbook with the little on and off button at the top right hand corner of the computer.
5) i turn the computer off. Wait a minute or two
6) turn computer on
7) repeat steps 1-6
8)now that I have gone thru this process i get the color wheel all the time.
I have tried to find answers in all sorts of mac books, discussions, you tube and google.
When I see something I think might work it's to complicated for me to follow mostly because I don't know where to begin, which of the many ways that there are to enter a program. Which honestly is what started this problem a couple months ago. New to the mac. Started working with my photos with no knowledge of the ins and outs at all and in doing so I began to loose group after group of photos to the grey/black ! monster.
My happy thought was knowing they were all backed up by the time machine. I could recover them from there, SMILE. Not now I cant even access that now. Things keep getting worse.
Please save a Mac by helping me

Answer 1

Why not start by reading the three User tips at the top of this forum's topic listing, especially the one on troubleshooting.
My guess is you have something faulty with your system from what you describe. I would start by:
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger and Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
Next try booting into safe mode to see if the problem ceases.
Download and install AppleJack - VersionTracker or MacUpdate. Read the documentation then boot into single-user mode and run the software per its instructions.
If none of the above help then you will likely need to reinstall OS X. You may be able to do the following:
How to Perform an Archive and Install
An Archive and Install will NOT erase your hard drive, but you must have sufficient free space for a second OS X installation which could be from 3-9 GBs depending upon the version of OS X and selected installation options. The free space requirement is over and above normal free space requirements which should be at least 6-10 GBs. Read all the linked references carefully before proceeding.
1. Be sure to use Disk Utility first to repair the disk before performing the Archive and Install.
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then quit DU and return to the installer.
2. Do not proceed with an Archive and Install if DU reports errors it cannot fix. In that case use Disk Warrior and/or TechTool Pro to repair the hard drive. If neither can repair the drive, then you will have to erase the drive and reinstall from scratch.
3. Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When you reach the screen to select a destination drive click once on the destination drive then click on the Option button. Select the Archive and Install option. You have an option to preserve users and network preferences. Only select this option if you are sure you have no corrupted files in your user accounts. Otherwise leave this option unchecked. Click on the OK button and continue with the OS X Installation.
4. Upon completion of the Archive and Install you will have a Previous System Folder in the root directory. You should retain the PSF until you are sure you do not need to manually transfer any items from the PSF to your newly installed system.
5. After moving any items you want to keep from the PSF you should delete it. You can back it up if you prefer, but you must delete it from the hard drive.
6. You can now download a Combo Updater directly from Apple's download site to update your new system to the desired version as well as install any security or other updates. You can also do this using Software Update.