Re Chest and Last scan results

[Shazza54]

Can I recruit the advice of more experienced Avast Home Edition users.  Because I thought the chest contained infected files, I went in and deleted all files in there.  I have now read some stuff on the Alwil website that suggests some of the stuff in there may be needed to run stuff on the computer (one was a Kernel file?)  Unfortunately i know very little about computers, so do mot really know what the names of files mean. Can files deleted from the chest be retrieved?

Also, I have just run a scan, and got a 6 line report saying the result was that the files named could not be scanned as the archive was password protected.  Should I try and find these files and try and unprotect them, so that avast can then scan them and perform some sort of action.  To be quite honest I have not got a clue

Thanks to anyone who reads this

[DavidR]

The three sections:

• The only area you should be interested in is the Infected Files section, this is where the files detected by avast and selected by you to move to the chest are placed.
• The User Files section is where the user can add files they suspect of being malware but not detected by avast.
• The System Files section is where avast keeps back-up copies of important system files in case the original becomes infected (leave them alone). Since you have already deleted them, then reboot your system and avast should make more copies of these system files.
• The All Chest Files is a collation of the three sections.

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

If you can give some examples of those file names, the locations and reason given why it can't be scanned might help us further ?

[Shazza54]

Hi David

Thanks for getting back.

Re The unscannable items, there were 6 lines as follows

c\docs&settings\allusers\sbrecoveryreg
c\docs&settings\allusers\sbrecoveryini
c\docs&settings\sharon\localsetings\ssd.d11
c\docs&settings\sharon\eacoremix
c\docs&settings\sharon\URLdynamicmix
c\docs&settings\sharon\URLstaticmix

Tried to find these files, but no idea where they are, not in the sharon folder.

The reason given for not scanning was archive file is password protected

I think line 3 may be Spybot Search and Destroy, maybe an old version?

Now to show my lack of knowledge even further, I can't find quarantine/restore/backup, is it accessed via the simple use interface, I have looked around and can't find it.

One thing I have found, as you suggest, there are 3 system files back in the chest, so I will leave them there

Many thanks for your patience

Shazza (N for novice)

[DavidR]

Certainly the first two are Spyware Search & Destroy, which is protecting its recovery files/settings.

The other three I have no idea about as google doesn't bring up any hits on eacoremix or URLdynamicmix. So if you have any idea what they might be related to your wiser than I

[Shazza54]

Do you think it matters that they have not been scanned? It worries me that I cannot find and delete them

[DavidR]

No it doesn't matter, avast is a resident scanner, if a file is run then before that is allowed it is scanned.

That however does depend on if the file in question is one that is at risk of infection and or an executable file.

[CharleyO]

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Perhaps thos link might help?

http://www.devarticles.com/c/a/Web-Services/Make-Dynamic-URLs-Search-Engine-Friendly/

Maybe this is something the ISP is doing? Or, maybe a search engine?

Anyway, I do not think any of those entries are worth worrying about.


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