What does 'Preparing...' mean exactly and why does it take so long?

Even incremental backups using Time Capsule seem to stall at the 'Preparing...' for 10 or 20 minutes, then only write a couple of megabytes of files. Right now my machine has been sitting at this stage for more than 4 HOURS! (and no, it's not an initial backup)
Does anyone know exactly what is going on during this unfathomably long period?
It'd be very useful if the Time Machine interface gave a hint that it was actually making progress - something along the lines of 'Preparing... x minutes to go' would be much more useful than the current dialog which might as well say 'has it crashed?'

TC has to check to see which files need to be backed up. So its going thru the file directory and looking for any changes since the last backup. Do you have a lot of files on your Mac to check? Or are they just a small number but very large. If its the former, then that might be the culprit.

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I am using a MacBook Pro, OSX 10.9.2. There are no RAW files and no xmp's. Corrupt files are possible.
I have noticed that today the "previews" finished uploading. And now the "originals" are beginning to uload. If 3,600 previews took almost 4 days to upload, i can expect 3,600 originals will take much longer. The internet speed is medium @ 1.5.
My iPhoto library has 12,000 photos and only a few videos. I don't think I will live long enough to try uploading a duplicate library via a web client at Adoberevel.com (laughing) I doubt that at this rate I'll be able to upload even half to Revel in the 1st 30 days.

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b Question
Every time I open a file I get a prompt which reads: Embedded Profile Mismatch.
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I always choose the default, which is the "embedded profile (instead of working space).
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b Answer supplied by Richard Rose
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Now the bad news - You have no idea what that means, nor how you are achieving that desirable situation.
You really need to start at the beginning and learn what color management is all about. For some reason lots of people get very confused and mislead trying to wrap their brains around the subject. It's really quite simple.
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Photoshop is telling you that "something" needs to be done. It can honor the camera's color space, from it's own frame of reference (Adobe RGB 1998) and work on the image, accurately handling the color information for screen display and eventual output. That's what you tell it to do when you "accept" the embedded profile. That's not bad, everything will work correctly, because Photoshop will have made internal conversions that remain active as long as the file is open, but there is something you have to keep in mind - when you save the file, Photoshop will save the original camera profile with it. Then if you open the file again, the same "warning" will occur.
That camera profile is as valid and useful as any other profile, but because it is not a commonly recognized color space may cause a problem in some other workflow. (Notice I said MAY. ICC color profiles SHOULD be ok in any program)
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What does 'Preparing...' mean exactly and why does it take so long?

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