Avast permanent low drive usage what must I do to stop it?

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hello, I need help with something, I just bought a new HDD, I’ve installed the drive in an external enclosure, the problem I have is that Avast is always using the drive, the process Avast Antivirus engine server - aswEngSrv.exe never stops using the HDD this is very annoying because happens permanently even when the drive should be idling.
This has been happening for days, so the drive never goes into standby. The usage of the drive is low, usually between 1% and 4%, sometimes with higher spikes, but never stops. I have other external drives and this doesn’t happen with them. If I disable Avast the drive completely stops being used so I have no doubt that is Avast doing something.
Is there any way to speed up the process so it won’t take forever? For example, if the drive worked at near 100% it would take some hours not forever.
Also, I don’t want to reduce my safety settings, but if I want to stop the permanent low drive usage what must I do to stop it?
Avast version: 21.1.2449 (21.1.5968.646)

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

2

Hi Brian, see: https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=251684.msg1588144#msg1588144

3

Wow that was fast, thank you ;), however the process mentioned in that post is the “aswidsagent.exe”, the one reading my files is the “aswEngSrv.exe”, probably not the same problem?

4
  • Which Avast…? (Free/Premium)
  • OS…? (32/64 Bit…? - which SP/Build…?)
  • Other security related software installed…?
  • Which AV(s) did you use before Avast…?
5
  • Avast Free Antivirus: 21.1.2449 (21.1.5968.646)
  • OS: Windows 10 pro 64 Bit - 19042.868
  • Other security related software installed: none in real time, only Avast.
  • I have been using Avast for years (in this PC I never had other antivirus).
6

Repair Avast:

  1. Avast GUI → Settings → Troubleshooting
  2. Click on ‘REPAIR APP’.
  3. Follow instructions.
  4. Reboot.
7

I’ve done that already; however, I didn’t reboot yet, the “aswEngSrv.exe” has been reading the files in my external HDD for about 7 hours now and I wanted to see if it stops by itself, I have the feeling that rebooting will do nothing.
Is there no way to control “aswEngSrv.exe” and what it is doing directly?

8

Hi, you need to reboot after a repair.

9

I’ve rebooted, still the same usage on the external drive…

10

You could try the latest beta: https://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=15

11

Thanks for the suggestion, however, I am not comfortable with the beta version, I have had problems with beta versions (of other programs) before.

Is there no way to control the “aswEngSrv.exe”? I believe this process belongs to the sandbox, but in my Avast, in the vertical tab on the left “protection”, the sandbox appears with an orange lock, so is not installed, but I remember using it a few years ago on this PC.

Anyway, do you know if this search performed by “aswEngSrv.exe” restarts every time the disk is connected to the PC or when the PC reboots, or if on the other hand Avast will make the search to continue where it left off when the external disk was last connected?

12

It finally stopped :), after many hours (about two or three days I believe) the process its not using the drive now, even after rebooting the pc or ejecting the drive and reconnecting it again the drive its not being used when in idle.
Still, it would be nice to understand what caused that behavior. It happened after I’ve copied to the drive some 200 thousand or so small files.

13

Thanks for the feedback.