Hi Kat-
That definitely sounds like it got hung up. After a few minutes, you should see a message that says “This normally doesn’t take this long, cancelling backup.”
We have seen this in certain configurations on DreamHost accounts, and here’s what you can do to fix it.
First, try switching to System Zip for your Zip compressor. Navigate to Total Upkeep $gt; Settings > Backup Process and switch the setting to System Zip.
If that doesn’t work, try switching to PHP without FastCGI. Here are instructions from DreamHost on how to do this.