Author Topic: un-scannable files  (Read 2643 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

lynyrd44

  • Guest
un-scannable files
« on: November 12, 2007, 05:15:41 AM »
Howdy there!  This has happened during most scans, but i thought it would be best to ask about files that were not able to be scanned.  There were 51 files un-scannable (scan was set to scan "C", thorough scan, and scan all files and archive files).  Most files were:  C:\documents and settings\all users\...\sb recovery.ini,  C:\documents and settings\all users\...\sb recovery.reg.  I tried moving these to the chest, but message came up "error occured during moving file to chest.  The last few files:  C:\programs files\auto cad2008\help\...\index.hhk  and C:\documents and settings\linn\desktop\index.hhk were also unscannable but were able to be moved to chest.  Why are some files like these un-scannable and cannot be moved to the chest?  No virus's were found during scan of over 450,000 files, and these were the only files un-scannable.
                                                                                       Linn

Offline Lisandro

  • Avast team
  • Certainly Bot
  • *
  • Posts: 67194
Re: un-scannable files
« Reply #1 on: November 12, 2007, 12:39:06 PM »
avast can't scan files that are password protected, it doesn't know the password.
There are many legitimate reasons why a file was password protected. For instance, the ones you're talking about. Lavasoft stores its data in a password-protected ZIP archives (to prevent other similar tools from messing up with them). It's really nothing to worry about - it's normal. Spybot does the same.

In AdAware and S&D, when you fix/remove things it keeps backup/recovery information so you can restore anything that was mistakenly fixed/removed, etc. After a reasonable time your system has suffered no adverse effects, you can get rid of the older recovery/backup points.

This should reduce the number of protected files.


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). Do you use any other security based programs ?

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.
The best things in life are free.