Not sure why the transfer is so slow and locking up on you, but the com.apple.smig prompts are related to this http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1631?v...S&locale=en_US#
summary from the above link: "If you change your account's password using your Mac OS X Install disc (or if your network-based account password is changed due to a network admin forcing a password change), your default keychain password (which uses the same initial password as your user account) does not change. Because of this, you will be prompted to enter a keychain password each time an application requires authentication that your keychain would normally provide."
I think what's happening is that you're being prompted for keychain authentication several times. You've possibly typed in a correct password, the mac does more work, then it prompts you again.
Steps on in the apple support link above can correct this.
We just had a user here transferring an account from one MAC to another ( replacement MAC ).
This message came up, sign into com.apple.smig ; and after calling the apple store were told to hit cancel - then it finished the transfer and ran.
Would have never guessed this as the thing to do as it was transferring for a while till it asked for this, and then still had more to go yet.....