iPad is not backing up

I have had problems backing up my iPad for some time now; however, with the new release it has become impossible. At first it would just cycle through (start to back up and than it would restart the iPad, start to back up, restart the ipad and so on and so on). I deleted a lot of different applications and reduced the amount of "stuff" on the ipad to less than half (I have a Wi-Fi 64G) and now it gets about 5% into the syncing and than just hangs there. Sometimes it will restart the ipad and other times it will just give me the spinning ball.
I do have the Zinio application with a fair number of magazines (25 or so) but I have selected the option to not back those up (which is done in the Zinio application itself). I also have a fair number of books in both the Kindle application (30) and the iBooks application (15). Not a lot of music, no TV shows or movies, some podcasts and a few games.
I have closed iTunes and than plugged in the ipad and let it open itunes and start the back up without any luck. I have also had iTunes open and than plugged in the ipad without any luck.
Thoughts? Ideas? Should I just try to remove everything from the ipad and rebuild it?