Hey, I forgot about the VRDB.
For a new user... I believe it would be set by defualt to run when the screensaver starts or after a certain amount of inactivity.
Good point...
You can either disable the VRDB or let it run for the first time.
What you may want to do is
force the generation of the VRDB database (updates every 21 days) by right clicking the Avast baloon, go to VRDB... then select generate NOW!
It will then take 3 back to back snapshots/images of your hard drive
This process can take a long time.... maybe 30minutes or more.
After this important step, you should THEN be able to see if your hard disk drive shuts down.
Basically the VRDB (Virus Recovery Database) takes a snapshot of your virus free hard drive. This is a very important step in protecting your system from future infection. If a virus was found on your system in the future and it corrupted an important system file... you would then be able to HEAL/RESTORE that file back to it's original virus free un-corrupted state based on the original snapshot you took. The IMAGE/snapshot of your hard drive allows for this recovery of files.
It's like Windows XP restore feature...
... except... Windows XP's restore feature can encapsulate viruses into the restore files. Sometimes it's better to disable XP's system restore.
Good anology?
Sorry if I sound confusing...
Thanks cjtc .