Author Topic: Avast, and image files  (Read 7010 times)

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Tipton

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Avast, and image files
« on: November 06, 2004, 04:24:27 AM »
I use Acronis true image to create image files of my system. During a full system scan, Avast hangs for a very long time when it scans these image files. What exactly is Avast doing, or not doing when it gets to these files? The scan will continue on after each image file, but it takes a very long time. Is Avast even able to do anything with these files since they are compressed?

Thanks

Tipton

Offline Lisandro

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Re:Avast, and image files
« Reply #1 on: November 06, 2004, 04:49:49 AM »
Is Avast even able to do anything with these files since they are compressed?

Can you say a little more about which compression is that?
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galooma

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Re:Avast, and image files
« Reply #2 on: November 06, 2004, 04:53:45 AM »
Wouldnt it make sense to lockdown your connection and de-activate running programs when you are making an image? ???

Tipton

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Re:Avast, and image files
« Reply #3 on: November 06, 2004, 05:02:40 AM »
Wouldnt it make sense to lockdown your connection and de-activate running programs when you are making an image? ???

You mis-understood my post. My image files are already created, and in a folder.  I create them with a boot CD. I am not even in windows when I create them. Although, with true image, believe it or not, you can create image files within windows with no problems.

Technical, when creating images with true image, you can select various compression levels, so the images don't take up near as much hard drive space. These images can be anywhere from 1.5 gigs in size, to 20 gig, depending on how much is installed on your system. Maybe that is why they take so long to scan????


Tipton
« Last Edit: November 06, 2004, 05:04:50 AM by Tipton »

techie101

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Re:Avast, and image files
« Reply #4 on: November 06, 2004, 05:07:44 AM »
Tipton,

What exactly do you mean by "a long time"?

Do you mean the Avast scan in general, or that of the compressed file/s?

Can you give me an example of a "time" for a file scan?

This might not be uncommon.  Avast will attempt to scan the files if you have the scanner set to Thorough and Archives.  Since the compression level is much greate than a normal file, Avast will take longer to get through it.

If you monitor an Avast scan, you will see that it does not get stuck, but rather pauses on certain files and file types.

Will the scan finish?  and how long does it take in entirety?

Thanks.

Offline Lisandro

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Re:Avast, and image files
« Reply #5 on: November 06, 2004, 05:08:23 AM »
These images can be anywhere from 1.5 gigs in size, to 20 gig, depending on how much is installed on your system. Maybe that is why they take so long to scan????

Did you try to exclude its specific extension from scanning?
Well, I must confess, I don't know much about image compression... Maybe Sasha.
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Tipton

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Re:Avast, and image files
« Reply #6 on: November 06, 2004, 05:15:22 AM »
Tipton,

What exactly do you mean by "a long time"?

Do you mean the Avast scan in general, or that of the compressed file/s?

Can you give me an example of a "time" for a file scan?

This might not be uncommon.  Avast will attempt to scan the files if you have the scanner set to Thorough and Archives.  Since the compression level is much greate than a normal file, Avast will take longer to get through it.

If you monitor an Avast scan, you will see that it does not get stuck, but rather pauses on certain files and file types.

Will the scan finish?  and how long does it take in entirety?

Thanks.

Well, just for the heck of it, I scanned a single image file, and nothing else. The image file scanned was 1.4 gig in size.  It took about two minutes to finish. Problem is I have a bunch of image files, so it adds alot of time to the scan.  I know Avast is not froze when it gets to those image files, but rather scanning them. The scan will finish, but the image files add alot of time to the scan. Other than those image files, the scan progresses just fine, and at a really good speed. I guess excluding them would be the best bet.

By the way, if I scan the same image files with AVG free beta 7, it scans them in seconds. I bet it isn't even really scanning them though.  I have tried other AV scanners as well on image files, and it scans right through them really fast.  Not sure really whats goin on.


Tipton

Offline Lisandro

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Re:Avast, and image files
« Reply #7 on: November 06, 2004, 11:41:41 AM »
By the way, if I scan the same image files with AVG free beta 7, it scans them in seconds. I bet it isn't even really scanning them though.  I have tried other AV scanners as well on image files, and it scans right through them really fast.  Not sure really whats goin on. Tipton

I won't be that self confident on scanning speed.
The application should be smart enough to not scan what is impossible to be infected but can't take the user to false confidence on scanning nothing. For instance, F-Prot for DOS has a very very fast scanning but without any (or very poor) detection of archives.
I won't talk about AVG as I stop using it a long time ago. But, the experience said me it is not scanning anything at this speed.  :P
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Offline igor

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Re:Avast, and image files
« Reply #8 on: November 06, 2004, 11:45:16 AM »
Oh, no, avast! certainly doesn't unpack image files, and I believe no antivirus does; it's not very likely that a virus would be hiding in the "inner bitmap" :)

Tipton, it all depends on the settings of the scan. If "scan whole files" is selected (in Simple User Interface, it means e.g. the "Thorough scan" is chosen), whole files are scanned. Therefore, it takes very long to scan such big files. Without this option, only a small part of the files would be scanned. With even other settings (not "scan all files"), the jpeg files would probably be skipped as not infectable (even though this might have changed with the recent jpeg exploit, not sure).
Anyway, if you have the files in one place, I'd suggest to put the folder to the exclusions (e.g. as X:\folder\*.jpg).

Offline DavidR

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Re:Avast, and image files
« Reply #9 on: November 06, 2004, 02:08:13 PM »
The same was true for me when my Drive Image 2002 .pqi files were scanned (just under 2GB each).

I simply added the "X:\Drive-Images\*.pqi" path to my exclusions.
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S.Z.Craftec

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Re:Avast, and image files
« Reply #10 on: November 06, 2004, 02:37:18 PM »
As Igor said, those files are large, rather to say huge... I use Norton Ghost for making image files of my partitions. For example, my C: partition which is btw, 35.6 Gb with 5.7 Gb used space, gives me 2.1 Gb image file (GHO) plus 825 Mb (GHS - spanned image file). So in general, two very large files, so I guess it's normal that avast! need to take some time to scan everything...

And again, as Igor mentioned above, putting folders in exclusion list should work fine.

Cheers !
« Last Edit: November 06, 2004, 02:38:49 PM by S.Z.C »

Tipton

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Re:Avast, and image files
« Reply #11 on: November 06, 2004, 03:29:55 PM »
Thanks for all the replies!  I have them on my exclude list.

Tipton

Offline igor

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Re:Avast, and image files
« Reply #12 on: November 06, 2004, 05:09:21 PM »
Oops, seems I didn't read the original post very well. I thought you were speaking about images (such as .jpg, .gif, ... :-[), not about disk images.

Well, it doesn't change much on the conclusion - it's likely to be in custom format that avast! certainly doesn't know.

Tipton

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Re:Avast, and image files
« Reply #13 on: November 06, 2004, 05:50:46 PM »
Oops, seems I didn't read the original post very well. I thought you were speaking about images (such as .jpg, .gif, ... :-[), not about disk images.

Well, it doesn't change much on the conclusion - it's likely to be in custom format that avast! certainly doesn't know.

I guess I should have described the image files I was talking about a bit better. Yes, they are images of my operating system partition. I think alot of other AV's skim right over this type of file, knowing that they are useless to scan. In the past when I have used Norton, McKafee, AVG, etc....the image files I speak of would fly right through during a scan.  Maybe down the road that could be added to Avast??

Tipton

Offline pk

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Re:Avast, and image files
« Reply #14 on: November 07, 2004, 02:55:40 AM »
your scanning is more sensitive, so it takes little time then it scans the files. avast 4.5 supports ISO cd images and NRG (nero burning rom) images.