Updating Issue: Backups suck...

I have a 3.1.3 version iTouch 8GB, 3G (I think), and I am having an awful time trying to update. When I attempt to update to the new 4.2, it askes me first about transfering my apps to the PC. So I do that. Then it allows me to proceed onto downloading the package for version. It finishs that. Finally O reach my big problem; then it does a back-up. I work wirelessly normally, but then the back-up takes about 5 hours (at LEAST!). So I tried switching to cabled network, which was said to go 6 to 7% faster (Yay). All is going quite well, I finish up some work and get back after an hour to see that the back-up is almost half done. So I get back to finishing up all the work I had, which took about another half an hour, and I check back; the back-up is still where it was. This back-up buisness is really annoying, and iTunes needs a fix on it! I'm attempting to back-up as I type this, and checking... it's been about 10 minutes and my progress is only about 1/8. I HATE THESE BACK-UPS! Can anyone PLEASE help me? :c

 

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

How were you backing up wirelessly? Try right clicking on your iPod in iTunes and select "Backup". Does it take the same amount of time? If it is faster, you can proceed to formatting your iPod and installing iOS 4. Once it has been installed you can choose to "Restore from backup".