My windows 8.1 computer is stuck in "preparing to restore" mode and I am afraid to shut it down???

[honusrapps]

My windows 8.1 computer is stuck in "preparing to restore" mode (for 3.5 hours) and I am afraid to shut it down??? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Ralston18]

How old is the computer and disk drive?

What prompted the restore operation? Any errors, some failure.....?

Restorations can take time. Can you hear or see any disk activity? Is there anything on the screen?

How is the restore being executed: what software, data source media....etc. ?