I have tried to virus scan 250 GB USB drive. It has been running for 3 days so far - does this sound right? I also tried a My Computer scan the day before and gave up after 8 hours. Are the scans usually this slow, can anything be done to speed then up? I am a new user and using the free version at the moment but cannot upgrade to professional if the scans are going to take this long. I really do not want to go back to Norton but scans were usually 2 - 4 hours fora complete scan when I used it.
What are your scan settings?
(ex. “normal scan”, “test archive”)
Is the USB connection v1.0 or v2.0?
If you run a thorough scan with archives (?) it is likely to be a long time especially if you have a lot of data.
Archive (zip, etc.) files are by their nature are inert, you need to extract the files and then you have to run them to be a threat. Long before that happens avast’s Standard Shield should have scanned them and before an executable is run that is scanned. Thorough is also by its design very thorough and perhaps a little overkill for routine use, were a Standard scan without archives should be adequate.
I have only ever done a through scan with archives once shortly after installation just to ensure a clean start state, but with XP for example avast will do a boot-time scan after installation if you select it, this I believe will be quicker and reasonably effective. Like everything in life things are a compromise.
The scanning speed is the same for Home / Professional version.
It’s too long for a 250Gb USB drive anyway…
Can you see the scanning progress? Didn’t the scanning freeze?
No
I just scanned my USB harddrive (180GB data, much zipfiles, USB2.0), and it took around 40 minutes with standard setting and “test archive” enabled.