I have just spent much of the past weekend having to reinstall Windows XP, together with all my data and software applications, to resolve a problem with a new sound card and its drivers, and have therefore been looking for effective and reliable disk imaging software that will safeguard against a recurrence of such an event. Having read some very favourable reviews about StorageCraft's ShadowProtect disk imaging software, I decided to try out their 30-day free trial.
However when I downloaded the trial software and attempted installation, my Avast Anti-virus software detected a Trojan Horse virus associated with the file Shad50ae.rra, which was then quarantined in the Virus Chest. The installation then failed because the file ShadowProtectSvc.exe could not be found.
The detailed description of the file quarantined in the Virus Chest contains the following information: File size: 1239584, Original file name: Shad50ae.rra, Virus Description: Win32:Crypt-BLE[trj], File ID: 5, Last modification date: 4/21/2008 1:30:22 PM.
I emailed StorageCraft's Technical Support and am as yet awaiting a reply. However I have since noticed that a poster on the StorageCraft support forums has today reported the same problem - here's the link:
http://forum.storagecraft.com/Community/forums/t/767.aspxIt seems that the issue has only arisen since the last Avast virus database update, and the (very limited) consensus so far seems to be that it is indeed a false positive, and will be triggered whether downloading the software online or installing it from a CD. Assuming that is the case, I would still like to be able to go ahead installing the ShadowProtect software.
My question, therefore, is whether Avast are aware of this issue and will be releasing a suitably updated Virus Database soon. If not, is there a way of adding this file to an exemptions list, or is it a case of having to disable Avast Virus protection whenever I need to install or run this software?
