Yes, I think it's the save time, I've save as before and it's taken that long.

Edit :
Okay, I managed to export my families to a new Sunset Valley neighbourhood with the graves in their inventories. Saved a couple of times without much play in the daily lives of my sims. Was revamping the neighbourhood. Took about a 2.5 mins to load,  about a min to save & quit. And 30 secs + to save in the middle of the game.

The files as they stand now are roughly
Sunset Valley_0x0859db3c.nhd  22.8 Mb
Sunset Valley_0x0859db3cExportDB.package  131 Kb
TravelDB.package  2.85 Mb

I haven't travelled so far. Are the sizes okay?

P.S : I also tried to upgrade my ram to 4g but my comp refused to recognize it, so I guess I'll be stuck on 3g.

Okay. How about the relationship of my sims with their dead ones? Will they lose the relationship if I transport the cemetry and the sims to a new Sunset Valley?

Okay. What should I do next? I haven't go rid of the ghosts yet

Okay.
I've run the test destroyallhumans twice. About 100 to 200 plus sims were killed. Unfortunately the vacant houses were immediately filled by sims from nowhere. It still took 1.5 hours to save. The safe file size decreased to about 276 Mb.
I also ran the clearmemories before I killed everyone but somehow when I looked back at my sims scrapbook, the memories were still there.

I don't normally install mods in my games, just CC. I like to go vanilla. But I might give it a try to test the destroyallhumans cheat.

I can't use that test. I don't have awesome mod installed.
Maybe I'll try decrapifying or recompressing again.

I've deleted the travel and export dbs. They haven't regenarated so far. It still takes about 30 mins to load and 1.5 hours to save.

Okay.
Does this mean I can delete the travel and export dbs? Will they regenerate?

Okay.
I've downloaded sim3pe.
Here is what I found                                         
China_0x0859db4c.nhd : Lots of files with the tag UNKN.
China_0x0859db4cExportDB.package : Lots of files with the tag TXTF and TXTC.
Egypt_0x0859db48.nhd : Lots of files with the tag UNKN.
Egypt_0x0859db48ExportDB.package : Lots of files with the tag TXTF and TXTC.
France_0x0859db50.nhd : Lots of files with the tag UNKN.
France_0x0859db50ExportDB.package : Lots of files with the tag TXTF and TXTC.
Sunset Valley_0x0859db3c.nhd : Lots of files with the tag SNAP, UNKN and some INV.
Sunset Valley_0x0859db3cExportDB.package : Lots of files with the tag TXTF and TXTC.
TravelDB.package : Between the files with the tag SIME and UNKN and some IMG.

But I have no idea what they are. Only can guess that txt are text files, img are image files and maybe unkn are unknowns?

@ GnatGoSplat, yes I do switch houses quite often, I play a household for a few days and then I normally will switch.

Okay.
I used to take photos last time, but hardly nowadays. Also I used to travel a lot but not much nowadays. I have a graveyard since the first days where it hosts ghosts of sims since I first played.
The bloat has nothing to do with the age of the neighbourhood?

Okay.
These are the files :
1a5tf1l3.dat : 26 b                                               
China_0x0859db4c.nhd : 57.8 Mb
China_0x0859db4cExportDB.package : 4.99 Mb
Egypt_0x0859db48.nhd : 175 Mb
Egypt_0x0859db48ExportDB.package : 4.66 Mb
France_0x0859db50.nhd : 48.5 Mb
France_0x0859db50ExportDB.package : 6.66 Mb
Meta.data : 297 b
Sunset Valley_0x0859db3c.nhd : 289 Mb
Sunset Valley_0x0859db3cExportDB.package : 130 Mb
TravelDB.package : 232 Mb

I'm not so sure how to see which files are abnormally large.
Maybe the Egyptian and Sunset Valley files are a little big.

I'm sorry if I used the wrong term, I meant the whole folder is 950 Mb. The .nhd (Sunset valley)  file is about 289 Mb.
It takes about 20-30 mins to load.

Should I re-compress the .nhd (Sunset Valley) file?

Could it be my processor dying to process the game? Yup, about 940 Mb now, it fluctuates around 930s to 960s. The save file has been there since 2009 I think when I first started to play.
I'll try re-compressing it.

It's an old neighbourhood, about 950 Mb in size but still, 1.5 hours?
New neighbourhood takes just minutes.
I tried re-compressing, is this also known as decrapifying but every time it takes only about 5 Mb out of my save file. I'll give it another try.

Hi,

I'm running :
Windows XP Pro 64 bit
Intel R Pentium R D 3 Ghz 3 Ghz CPU (XE 925)
Micro-Star P4M890M3-V Mainboard
GeForce GT 440 1024MB DDR3 graphics card
450 W of power supply
3G of RAM DDR2-SDRAM

My game takes about 1.5 hours onwards to save.
Could this be memory related? I'm planning on having 4G of memory max, would this help?

@SickPuppy

Yes I normally apply the crack accordingly after I install each expansion. Normally on the 32 bit, after installing each expansion and pasting the crack, before I install the next expansion, it will ask me to update and I'm allowed to install afterwards. However, I've not faced any errors so far of invalid discs installing this way.

@Ryslin - I'm not sure about UAC. I'm on admin account on XP 64 bit.
@SickPuppy - Normally I cannot patch, but somehow I don't know if I was lucky or did it right, I managed to patch without getting the invalid disc error.
I managed to install in the x86 Program Files but I had to download fresh copies of WA and HELS with their cracks. I'm not sure if this is an issue, but prior to this my WA and HELS were standalones.
However too, the saving time is between 1 hour to 1.5 hours and my save file is about 900 MB.

Thanks everyone! 

I'll try again. I'm on admin account. I would go ahead and install if not for the error.
Each EP & SP are installed into their own folders. WA and HL creates their own subfolder whereas I've to create for the others.

@ Jeebus
I tried to install in C:/Games. I get the error "setup has detected that the sims 3 is corrupt or not properly installed , setup is unabled to continue" when trying to install ambitions after installing the base game, WA and HL.
The game ran once when I installed the base game, WA and HL in program files, and ambitions in program files x86. Is this not advisable?
I have run out of ideas.

Is it ok/safe to install the Sims 3 base, WA and High Loft in the Program Files, while the rest of it in Program Files x86?
My save takes about 1 to 1.5 hours even with less than 1 hour of play and I don't know if it's being caused by installation in Program Files.

So far it is running okay, about the same as it runs on my 32 bit. I don't normally patch my game as problems arise from it because of my non-original software. I think there's a solution for this but I have not tried it. If I have Sims 3, WA and High Loft in program files, and then Ambitions and the rest of it in Program Files x86, the game runs. I tried installing it in D and in C:/Games but the same problem arose. However, if it is in Program Files on both XP & Win 7, the game runs fine.

When I try to install ambitions after I have installed WA and High Loft, this error comes out.
"setup has detected that the sims 3 is corrupt or not properly installed , setup is unabled to contiue".
However, no problems arise when I installed them into Program Files

I would install in Program Files (x86). I tried a few times but errors arose and I was unable to proceed to ambitions without getting the sims 3 is corrupt or not properly installed error

I tried it on my xp 64 bit first, it had those problems. Then I tried it on my seven 64 bit, it had the same problems. Is it harmful to my computer if I installed the game into Program Files instead of Program Files (x86)?

I had some problems installing Sims 3 and the expansions and stuff pack in the Program Files (x86). I was getting service initialization failure. Also I was getting the 'The sims 3 is corrupt and not installed properly' error when I tried to installed Ambitions. However, when I installed them in Program Files, installation was as normal as on the 32 bit and the game could run. Does it make a difference which Program files folder I install the game in?