Yeah, so I've been noticing for the past few weeks that when I defragment my computer using Perfectdisk that it always recommends a off-line defragment because my Metadata is fragmented. Ussually around 80-300 fragments. Which is horrible!!!!

Metadata is the files that contain the directories for all other files on the harddrive. So when they fragment, you'll notice a huge drop in performance like I did.

So, if you computer is slowing down and has large Metadata fragments you may have to do what I did. As I eventually found out, it was caused by Windows Live Messenger. It installs a service called 'Messenger Sharing USN Journal Reader' which is what transfers files across WLM. To disable this part of Windows Messenger you'll need to follow these steps.

Go to: Start / Run / type "services.msc" (without quotes) / OK. Then, scroll down to 'Messenger Sharing USN Journal Reader' Service and double click it, stop it and then under the 'startup type' drop down menu choose 'disabled', apply changes and reboot.

It won't effect MSN/Yahoo at all, it'll only effect the file sharing part of W.L.M. So it's not much of a loss at all. Apparently this was all caused by bad coding... the program loses control and expands your Metadata by up to 100x from what I've read.

Good Luck

Or just uninstall windows messenger alltogether.

oh snap!

Fixed.

until windows update decides you really didn't mean to uninstall Windows Messenger!

It's worked so far for me.

yeah, at first i did that but i actually only use the damn thing to see who's logged onto Xbox Live playing games. It was just as simple to disable the damn journal for now.