Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: happy sunday on July 08, 2006, 04:17:22 PM
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The virus scanner give me the choice of what to do with the infected files. It gives me a recommendation like "desposit it in the container". So I believe it's the best choice....
How can I know that It could be useful to repair or delete it? Perhaps a infected file is necessery for something else and it should be repaired.
Are the infected files secure (isolated) in the container box? Why keep them there or not delete them?
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You have done the right thing, 'first do no harm' don't delete, send virus to the chest and investigate.
There is no rush to delete anything from the chest, they can't do any harm there. Anything that you send to the chest you should leave there for a week or two. If after that time you have suffered no adverse effects from moving these to the chest, scan them again (inside the chest) and if they are still detected as viruses, delete them.
If a file can be repaired the Repair option is usually enabled, not all files can be repaired. Trojans generally can't be repaired (either by the VRDB or avast virus cleaner), because the entire content of the file is malware, so it is either move to chest or delete, move to the chest being the best option (first do no harm). When a file is in the chest it can't do any harm and you can investigate the infected warning.
The VRDB only protects certain files, .exe, dll and other system files, it doesn't protect data files or all files, it is not a back-up program, so there are going to be many occasions where repair won't be an option.
Only true virus infection can be repaired, e.g. when a virus infects a file it adds a small part to it, provided that file is one that avast's VRDB would monitor and you have run the VRDB, then it may be possible to repair the file to its uninfected state.
However, for the most part so called viruses, trojans (adware/spyware/malware, etc.) can't be repaired because the complete content of the file is malicious.