Long time scanning

[Garythek]

Why did it take almost an hour to scan my disks folders and archive files, (and then it wasn't finished), plus it reported inability to scan the archive files?

[Lisandro]

Why did it take almost an hour to scan my disks folders and archive files, (and then it wasn't finished)

It depends on your sensitivity level of scanning.
It will be like you are experiencing if you have many archive files and ask avast to scan them or if you set for throughout scanning.
On-demmand scanning does not have to be fast, doesn't it? I think on-access protection should be fast and accurate to asure you're protected and clean.

Plus it reported inability to scan the archive files?

Which files? (path and name). Which extensions are involved?
Are they password protected?

[Garythek]

The "last scan results" option is grayed out in my menu! I can't access it! But some of the files had to do with Spybot S&D and some were .zip files. But how do I get the results of the last scan?

[Lisandro]

I suppose to be answering here:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=5599

Please, do not open two 'identical' threads...

The results of last scanning could be found at report folder of avast (avast4\data\report). If they were not there, well, working with results is a major feature of avast Professional version. Maybe the last one is still there.

Usually Spybot files are not due to low scanning but you can exclude the folder with spybot files. The zip files are most probably the guilty...
Empty your windows temporary folder and run the scan when you are not using the computer...