Virus Scanning

I have been told by the Geek Squad that one of our computers had a virus. They wanted to charge $130 for removal. I have four computers and I believe they all have the same virus. The hard drives all have a large space in the middle and data on both sides of the space. Defrag does not correct this. My programs are constantly changing behavior and they all run extremely slow.

I tried to use several online scanner programs and nothing is found. I found Kaspersky online Scanner through Avast and tried it just now.

I got a report that said all my files are locked and could not be scanned.

Are there any suggestions on how to unlock these files so this scan can run?

Thanks for any assistance!

Take care,
Dale

I have been told by the Geek Squad that one of our computers had a virus.

Who are the geek squad ?
What did they base this on, how did they determine you have a problem ?

What report was it an avast report after a scan ?
If so avast will also have said why files can’t 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.

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