Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: angelsmom10 on January 26, 2009, 07:24:34 PM
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I am not computer literate so please be gentle....
Just downloaded avast (home) and got a ton of files that are saying that it wasn't scanned as it was "password protected"... I don't know of any programs that I have that are password protected.. some are "zip" files (don't have many of them on my computer that I'm aware of)..
some are "spybot\search & destroy\recovery......"
some are "yahoo!\YPSR\quarantine\20050901195108.zip......"
should I delete, move to chest, or leave alone..
What is "move to chest" do.. does it leave the info there and accessible (if for some reason I do use that)...
Again, I don't know what I am doing and would appreciate any help!
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Files that can't be scanned are just that, not an indication they are suspicious/infected, just unable to be scanned.
So you shouldn't be sending files to the chest just because they can't be scanned.
See http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=35347.msg297170#msg297170 (http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=35347.msg297170#msg297170) this topic for more information on why files can't be scanned.
I would expect S&D to protect its recovery data, I would also expect a Quarantine (yahoo in this case) to also protect what is quarantined.
Move to the chest is quarantine:
In avasts case files in the chest have the name changed and are encrypted.
If you check the chest location from outside with explorer C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\chest all you will see are the names allocated by avast not the original file name. So even if you knew it was there you wouldn't know the name assigned, so it couldn't be run from the outside.
When you open the chest you then see the different sections the only one you are concerned with is the Infected Files section, then you can see what the original file name, but only avast can access the chest.
There is no rush to delete anything from the chest, a protected area where it can do no harm. Anything that you send to the chest you should leave there for a few weeks. 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.
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I would expect S&D to protect its recovery data, I would also expect a Quarantine (yahoo in this case) to also protect what is quarantined.
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and forgot to mention that my spybot hasn't been active in quite a while, so unsure what that is about also..
In the topic you referenced you metioned .....
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
how would I go about deleting old files in quarantine.... (ie the spybot
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Doesn't matter if it is active now or not when those items were placed in the recovery they will have been protected by password. By the same token you can't delete the quarantined items from outside (or I would hope not) so you would need to run S&D and open the Recovery section and empty it. However, if you haven't used it for some time it would be best to uninstall it.
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thanks, but I haven't even seen the program .. but then again, I don't know exactly how to find it or what to look for....
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Windows add remove programs ???
Or Windows Start, All Programs, Spybot Search & Destroy, etc.
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OK, that's on windows OS right.? how bout on ubuntu..?? cuz Im stuck at how to recover my datas....
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OK, that's on windows OS right.? how bout on ubuntu..?? cuz Im stuck at how to recover my datas....
avast for linux/unix forum section is here. http://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=36.0