Went back a few pages, but did not find my exact problem. Ran full scan with Archives. When finished, screen pops up showing Listed lines: 1177. All but 2 are “sbrecovery.reg and sbrecovery.ini” from Docs & Settings - All Users, and the reason is “unable to scan: Ar…” I cannot read the complete reason why. How/where can I read the whole “reason” and is there anything that should be done ? The scan says it did 26.5 GB and NO troubles found, so not worried about that part, just curious and concerned about what it cannot scan. (Avast Home, up to date as of today.)
Thanks in advance for any help and advice.
bobnrobin
You have spybot installed, and when you removed things with it, it created backups. It protects those backups so that they don’t infect your computer again.
Therefore, Avast can’t scan the files because they are protected.
It’s perfectly normal, don’t worry about it. ;D
Welcome to the forums!
Files that can’t be scanned are just that, not an indication they are suspicious/infected, just unable to be scanned.
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 ?
Again, what he ^ said…
I think if it were easy enough to do from multiple computers / locations, I should just start some pre-written explanations of common problems and copy and paste them (maybe I’ll start carrying a flash drive or something). I just can’t spend the time to remember all the details when I give someone an answer, then DavidR comes by with a kick butt explanation that knocks mine out of the water! I guess you guys do that though, right?
Well, thanks bud.
Don’t feel bad, David does that to ALL of us.
He does a really great job on these forums and has forgotten more about Avast than most of us know.
You’re welcome.
Easy to copy and paste them or copy the link to the explanation ;D
Yes that is what I do but although I have two systems I only use the one.
Easy to copy and paste them or copy the link to the explanation
The problem is finding them all of the time…
It’s alright, I’ll figure something out. I’m a tech dammit! ;D
You don’t have to go looking, there are common problems that keep cropping up when they appear then capture the info or link, it won’t take long to build up. Same too if you are constantly typing the same thing, after a few times I save it so it is there for use in the future.
A long time ago I used to have a clipboard application that allowed the storage of 10 commonly used scripts, etc. very handy. I no longer have it and 10 wouldn’t be up to the task ;D
So it is just as easy to save to a text file which you can export to a USB stick.
Thanks, scythe944 & DavidR !
Very much appreciate that you took the time to explain/reply. Yup, do have SpyBot, also SpywareBlaster and Ad-Aware… Just could not read the complete “reason”. Thanks for the tip on how to be able to read the whole thing - apparently, need to re-read all the instructions. Have had the avast! home for 2-3 years, and finally got curious enough to come ask ??. 'Bout the time I think it’s time to spring for the “Pro” ver., there’s a new and improved free to check out. Like that avast! is much easier on the system resources than Norton.
Thanks, again.
bobnrobin
No problem, glad I could help.
Welcome to the forums.