t61 "restore" (using r&r) hung up

A. just got a new t61 (type 8897cto)...after a few days of flawless operation, i got BSOD twice while using dla ( ps1. the pc re-startred fine after BSODs & worked fine..so it is in worse state now). so i decided to restore the sytem to a recent backup created on hd. i followed the intructions (ps2. i chose the option to restore app aplications and settings), but...

after the final start restore click, the progress window appeared but after 1hr and 40 mins, the meter was still showin 0%, and clicking mouse on any button had no affect...so i forced shut down using the power button and restarted....

good news- the pc booted up and is usable
bad news- bunch of applciations are missing, and configuration are messed up and i had re-register msoffice

so...1) does a restore take several hours and did i get too impatient or the r&r failed?
2) while the r&r icons are gone, i can get to it by pressing the blue -button...is it worth trying to restore again from the good back up?

B. also, in searching the forum, i noticed people had problems (error indicating missing file) using the recovery discs with r&r4.0. does anyone know if the discs created with 4.1 work ok? any final verdict on will an update to 4.1 let you create a new set of disks (old posts reprort "yes" as well as "no")?? i did make a set of recovery discs but i am afraid they may be useless if the second restore attempt fails and creates an unusable stage.

thanks in advance for any help