I think I have fixed it - Horray
Give the PRS-600 a major heart attack, by deleting all the files except the actual books and MP3's (Background reading music)
Basically after analysing the "READER" and "SDCARD" virtual disks on my PC (I run XP)
1. I backed up the two Disks to my PC
2. On "READER" I deleted all information except that found in \database\media
3. On "SDCARD" I deleted all information except that found in \Sony Reader\books and \Sony Reader\audio.
4. My next post USB comms was the usual 12 mins.
5. The next post USB comms was 30 secs.
Success .....
Conclusion ... move the files on manually and don't use fancy Sony screwup
software
I will try some large amounts of books tonight ... just because I can ...
thanks for all the comments Guys and Girls they pointed out to me that there was something wrong with my machine ...