Backup and restore

I have been working with Front Accounting for a couple of years now and been really happy with it. However, I am now having problems with the backup facility. When I create a backup a new tab is opened and the backup procedure which normally takes a minute at the most goes on for at least five minutes before I have to abort. The latest url for the additional tab was:

http://home-url/folder/user/backups.php?JsHttpRequest=13995455721960-form

I have tried different browsers on different operating systems and the problem is the same. Any ideas of what the problem is?

Thanks