Some files could not be scanned

[gibradford]

Hi,
Am running Avast 6.0.1125 on Win 7 x64 SP1. Over the past few days, when running a quick scan i get the following scan results:

File Name:  C:\Users\All Users
Status: Error:The System cannot find the path specified (3)

Have tried to track down the above file name, but it doesnt exist, any way to clear this error?

Thanks!

[igor]

On any Vista / Windows 7 system partition, there's a number of "links" - pointing to other folders. For example, C:\Users\All Users actually goes to C:\ProgramData.
However, the links are probably wrong on your system (let's say, for instance, that it points to X:\ProgramData instead - and no X: partition exists).
We've seen it a number of times... I'm not sure how exactly it can happen, but I'd say the Windows installation (or some kind of subsequent cloning) has been performed incorrectly.

If you uncheck the option "Follow links during scan" on the "Sensitivity" page of the scan, the errors should disappear, as avast! won't attempt to resolve the links. However, you'll have to do that for every type of scan you use.

[gibradford]

Ok, thanks, that makes sense. In my case it would appear it's pointing D:\ProgramData which would be my HP recovery partition. Is the only option to change the Sensitivity options, or is this something that can be rectified in Windows?

[DavidR]

I don't think the sensitivity is the issue, but an option in the Sensitivity settings, Follow links during scan, may well have something to do with this, as it appears to be following a link (path).

So you could try unchecking that.

However, I believe the correct thing would be to check the environment variables and change the drive letter from D:\ to the correct drive letter.

Control Panel, Performance and Maintenance, System, Advanced, Environment Variables. Not sure if this is correct for your OS as it is from my XP Pro system, but from that you should be able to find it.

[igor]

There's no environment variable... it's a hardcoded path inside of the link, leading to a different partition (than it should).

As for fixing the problem... don't know. I suppose you could use some command-line tools (e.g. Sysinternals Junction) to fix them manually - but there are quite a few of them on the system partition, and if all are affected, it might take a while...

[gibradford]

Thanks very much for your replies. It would appear its a redundant folder, i right clicked and checked its properties, and Windows notified me that it was a shortcut pointing to nothing, would i like to delete it. The folder has now gone and Avast no longer follows it to nowhere 

[igor]

Well, these links are generally there to ensure compatibility with various software that may use hardcoded paths to these folders (which changed over the time).