FILES CAN'T BE SCANNED!!!! WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

General Topics
1

I show 469 files. That’s a lot. WHY can’t they be scanned? Obviously not a problem because the report shows no infections found assuming of course that the files that can’t be scanned are not infected. All comments appreciated. Thank you. info@jaysimms.com
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e51/jaysownplace/avastscan.jpg

2

don’t worry about that, thats normal!

it only means that Avast! cant scan that files because they are protected by some other program or in a format which can’t be opened…

3

Many programs (usually security based ones) password protect their files for legitimate reasons such as AdAware and Spybot Search & Destroy, there are others (and avast doesn’t know the password or have any way of using it even if it did know it).

When you run scans with the above programs and you delete harmful entries that they detect, a copy is kept (in quarantine/restore/backup) in case you need to reverse what you did. These are usually password protected, you should do some housekeeping and delete old backup/recovery/quarantine entries (older than two weeks or so), this will reduce the numbers of files that can’t be scanned.

By examining 1) the reason given by avast! for not being able to scan the files, 2) the location of the files, you can get an idea of what program they relate to. You may need to expand the column headings to see all the text. If you can give some examples of those file names, the locations and reason given why it can’t be scanned might help us further ?

Files that can’t be scanned are just that, not an indication they are suspicious/infected, just unable to be scanned.

4

OK DavidR states:

These are usually password protected, you should do some housekeeping and delete old backup/recovery/quarantine entries (older than two weeks or so), this will reduce the numbers of files that can’t be scanned.

I clean out all my junk files regularly. Is there some special action required to clean out the entries you mention? If so, I would appreciate how to do this.

Thanks.

5

Which antispyware tool do you use? You can go there and empty the Quarantine. This will reduce the number of the ‘protected’ items that cannot be scanned by avast.

6

My comments were directly related to security based software that have quarantine areas, etc. and in particular S&D to which the files and locations in your image relate. So simply clearing out junk and temp files will have zero effect on this problem, you have to do the housekeeping ‘inside’ S&D by clearing old quarantine items, etc.