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Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: bluelazer1 on August 31, 2010, 10:36:00 PM

Title: "System cannot find the file specified"
Post by: bluelazer1 on August 31, 2010, 10:36:00 PM
I received this msg after scanning for bad stuff.  Is there some reference I could look up to tell me what various error msgs mean?

And what do I do about this problem?  I can't delete what the system can't find.  How does he know there is a virus if he can't find the file in the first place? ::)
Title: Re: "System cannot find the file specified"
Post by: DavidR on August 31, 2010, 10:55:54 PM
What is the infected file name, where was it found e.g. (C:\windows\system32\infected-file-name.xxx) ?

That will be in the report file for the type of scan that you did (?)
Title: Re: "System cannot find the file specified"
Post by: bluelazer1 on September 01, 2010, 12:07:55 AM
I have four files with this msg.  They're too long to type and Avast! error log doesn't allow Cut and Paste for some reason.  How would the file name make any difference?  I'm new at this, so I just asking.
Title: Re: "System cannot find the file specified"
Post by: DavidR on September 01, 2010, 12:48:55 AM
It makes a difference or I wouldn't have asked; it could be in a temporary location, archive, etc. and under certain circumstances may no longer there.

What version of avast are you using ?
I suspect avast 4.8 given your comment "Avast! error log doesn't allow Cut and Paste for some reason."

I also asked what type of scan you were using as that allows me to tell you where to look for the source file.

If you are using avast5 and you use notepad you can open the source file for the info about the scan and copy and paste the relevant information.
Title: Re: "System cannot find the file specified"
Post by: bluelazer1 on September 01, 2010, 02:20:26 AM
I'm using Avast! 5.0.
"Select Folder to Scan" was what I used to scan the disk.
Title: Re: "System cannot find the file specified"
Post by: DavidR on September 01, 2010, 02:30:52 AM
With Select folder (you can say what folder was scanned) and to find the actual file name, you would have to have set that up to create a report file, see image.

If you have then the log will be in this location, C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Alwil Software\Avast5\report\Select folder to scan.txt (this is for XP, other OS and you would have to find it in their equivalent location to docs & settings.
Title: Re: "System cannot find the file specified"
Post by: bluelazer1 on September 01, 2010, 03:48:24 AM
I re-ran the scan.  I selected "report" as in your picture.  I run Windows 7. The Documents and Settings folder is locked.  I opened ProgramData folder and found the Report folder but none of the files in Report has today's date.
Title: Re: "System cannot find the file specified"
Post by: DavidR on September 01, 2010, 03:36:08 PM
Don't worry so much about todays date as it is a cumulative log, the bottom of the file are the latest entries, that may contain the information from your last scan (if the report option was previously selected).
Title: Re: "System cannot find the file specified"
Post by: bluelazer1 on September 02, 2010, 03:31:15 AM
I re-ran the scan and took a screen capture of the Result log.  Hope this helps.
Title: Re: "System cannot find the file specified"
Post by: DavidR on September 02, 2010, 04:11:42 AM
What is drive H: normally windows is installed on C: so what sort of configuration is this ?

The main thing is that this isn't being detected as a virus, etc. So unless these folder locations are created temporarily, I don't understand why they can no longer be found.

A google search trying to get some info is proving rather frustrating, a search for GAG_MSIL only returns two hits, so I don't know if either of these are familiar to you. http://www.google.com/search?q="gag_msil" (http://www.google.com/search?q="gag_msil")

That's me for the night, after 3a.m. here.
Title: Re: "System cannot find the file specified"
Post by: bluelazer1 on September 06, 2010, 11:38:47 PM
The drive H: is a USB attached external drive I took from my other system because I suspected a virus might be on it.  My plan was to run Avast! against H:, remove the threats and copy the remaining files to another disk for archiving.  Then reformat H: and rebuild it.

Avast! says in the log that the "threat severity" is "High" for these errors.    I just don't understand how to eliminate the "threat."  BTW, thanks for your help; I do appreciate it. Cheers.
Title: Re: "System cannot find the file specified"
Post by: DavidR on September 07, 2010, 12:01:48 AM
Well avast is already giving you a clue, Move to the Chest, at the end of the scan there should be an Apply button that would send these to the chest.

However, given that these are from another system there would be little point in sending them to the chest in your system, so deletion would be another option (one I wouldn't recommend if it were on your existing system).