>The data being loaded from the temp cursor has about
>750,000 records. I am using a custom progress bar
The first 10% of the data was loaded very fast and had
>an estimated time to complete of 2 hours. The process
>is now 28% complete and the estimated time is approaching
>7 hours remaining.

That's pretty normal...at first it only occupies memory, so it's much faster. Then it hits the memory ceiling, and is forced onto disk, where it slows down...to get your progress bar accurate, you have to roughly measure memory, and then disk I/O rate, and have two rates in your bar...