How do I prevent Eclipse from hanging on startup?

Question

I am using Eclipse 3.3 (\"Europa\"). Periodically, Eclipse takes an inordinately long time (perhaps forever) to start up. The only thing I can see in the Eclipse log is:

Answer 1

I did this:

1. cd to .metadata.plugins\org.eclipse.core.resources
2. remove the file .snap
3. Noticed the Progress tab was doing something every few seconds..it seemed stuck
4. Exit eclipse (DO NOT FILE|RESTART HERE OR YOU HAVE TO GO BACK TO STEP 1 AGAIN)
5. Open eclipse again.

Using -refresh or -clean when starting eclipse did not help.