why do virus scans take so long?

[jsawicki]

im just wondering why it takes like 1 hour to do a virus scan. I have very few files outside of windows files since i just reformatted.

[Panama Red]

Before you run the virus scan, delete all cookies and temp files from within IE or your browser. Use Disk Cleanup to remove other temp files, recycle bin and all but the latest Restore Point. Your AV has to scan all those unneeded files for a complete scan. It will also run faster if you defrag after my above suggestions before running the AV scan.

[ZeratulsAvenger]

How fast is your HD? If its a slow hard it will take longer. If you have the option on to check zip files it can take longer, it can take longer if you have that one thing to detect unknown viri I think... Also could be your checker. What program do you use? AVG? Norton? Besides that I really know know. I would say set it and com eback in an hour, or let it scan while your surf the net or work or something.... thats what i do. DO scans daily and I have just come to ignore it, guess mine only takes 30 or so minutes though with 45 or so GB to check.

[jsawicki]

well my speed is 5400 but when i look at the hard drive light it doesnt seem to be blinking too often. its almost like its not using the hard drives full potential.

[EzyStvy]

An Example:

How does Symantec AntiVirus prevent infections?

Virus infections can be easily avoided. Viruses that are quickly detected and removed from your computer cannot spread to other files and cause damage. Symantec AntiVirus uses a variety of methods to detect file, boot, and macro viruses early:

Signature based scanning: Symantec AntiVirus relies on signature or pattern-based scanning to detect viruses. Symantec AntiVirus searches for residual virus signatures in infected files. This search is called a scan. If a virus signature is detected, Symantec AntiVirus notifies you that one or more of your files is infected. Based on your Symantec AntiVirus configuration, the infected file is cleaned, deleted, quarantined, or left alone. By default, Symantec AntiVirus attempts to clean the virus from the infected file.

Realtime Protection: Constantly monitors activity on your computer by looking for virus patterns when a file is executed or opened; and when modifications have been made to a file, such as renaming, saving, or copying a file to and from directories.

File checksumming (available on NetWare and NTFS partitions on Windows NT 4.0/5.0): Symantec AntiVirus uses a full file proprietary checksumming algorithm to calculate a checksum value on files. This value is stored and compared against future checksums. Because viruses change executable file code, checksums that do not match original checksums indicate that virus infection may have occurred. If the checksum values do not match, Symantec AntiVirus will log the event once and will also notify you that the file may be infected.

[TwoRails]

It depends on a lot of things, as PR mentions, and how you define "long." I average 40 - 45 minutes scaning all files (including compressed files / zips) over 4 HDs with an average of 330,000 to 350,000 files total. I don't think that is long at all.

[RayH]

Depends what kind of files you have and how crowded your hard drive is.