I observed this symptom with a 4Mb .backup file (details of commands issued below).
The restore always failed at the same rogue table. On going back to the source DB, I experienced trouble on that table: vacuum worked, but vacuum FREEZE hung after which SELECT count(*) hung! In my case, the "workaround" was to stop the source DB server and redo the backup. My (somewhat speculative) conclusion is that there may be a problem with performing hot-backups on a live database. Andrew. BACKUP: pg_dump.exe -i -h localhost -p 5432 -U Administrator -F c -b -v -f "D:\dbname.backup" dbname Windows Server 2003, postgres 8.1.5, pgAdmin3 v1.4.3 RESTORE: Windows XP SP2, postgres 8.1.1 pgAdmin3 v1.4.1: C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\8.1\bin\pg_restore.exe -i -h localhost -p 5432 -U postgres -d dbname -v "Z:\dbname.backup" --------------------------------- All new Yahoo! Mail "The new Interface is stunning in its simplicity and ease of use." - PC Magazine