all chest files?? what does it mean

[rockie]

i'm new to avast free and i have some files stored in "all chest files" .. what does it mean? are they infected or just protected? i did a scan and check marked archive and a lot of files couldn't be scanned some were avast files i guess its just protecting itself but the others? if u need a list i can scan again and copy and paste.
i hope that some one can answer i would be happy then and less concerned.
Rockie

[Lisandro]

You will notice the avast chest is in three sections:
1. Infected Files, speaks for itself, any files detected by avast that you chose Move to Chest as the action.
2. System files, back-up copies of important system files. There are (generally) files in the System Folder of the Chest: command.com, kernel 32.dll and wsock32.dll. During the installation, avast! copies some critical system files into the Chest, under the "System files" category. Those files might cause the operating system to crash if they get infected by a virus. If needed, those files can be restored from the Chest to their original location. Should an unknown virus infect the computer despite the extensive protection from the avast! antivirus package and alter an important system file, it can then be easily restored to its original state.
3. User Files, an area for the user to import suspicious files that haven't been detected so they can do no harm and can be sent by email to Alwil for further analysis.

Files are safe into Chest, can't harm your computer.

[DavidR]

I really do wish Alwil would get rid of this All Chest Files collation of the three sections, mentioned by Tech.

[rockie]

thank you Tech.
but what about the files avast couldn't scan? if u can help i sure would be grateful.
the first time i ran avast it did pick up a trojan that was Sunday but yesterday and today, Tuesday,
nothing found by avast.

[DavidR]

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 ?

You can post some common examples