I downloaded the latest version of Avast 4.6.665. I then ran a thorough scan. This scan has been running for over two hours now. I only have 10.8 GB of used space, which normally takes at most 45 minutes to scan. If I try to stop the scan I get the message shown:
http://img78.echo.cx/img78/2412/screenhunter0110yg.jpg
O.K. I think I know what’s happening. I installed lately a slave drive (S drive) on which I created an image of my C drive. I can see that Avast is actually scanning this image. I’ll have to investigate whether scanning this drive is actually recommended.
The scan length is totaly dependant on the number and size of files. I did a scan (full and archives ) this am and for 150,000 files it took 45 minutes. However I did have a similar problem a few weeks ago all I did was go to control panel…add/remove programmes…select avast remove…then selected the repair option (you must be online for this) rebooted then no further problems. I just put it down to a problem on the update download no occurence since.
You can add the file (name and path) to the exclusion list of avast.
In fact, you can call this a bug… avast! is working 8)
A through scan is going to take a considerable time (so I would suggest it is a fire and forget {go to bed} activity), especially if you are also scanning archives. I would recommend you do one of these shortly after you have installed avast to ensure your system is clean. I would only run it after any serious infection or suspect activity.
I run a standard scan (without archives) weekly since the resident scanners provide adequate protection for day to day use, scanning created, modified, or opened files. An archive file is inert until you open (unzip) it and run one of the files inside, the standard shield will scan this activity. So scanning archive files on a regular basis is wasted processing effort based on there risk (IMHO).