WD Quick Scan not so quick...

[Guest]

Hi

I don't know if this an usual behavior for WD, but in comparison with
Microsoft AntiSpyware, the Quick Scan option takes too long, more than 3
hours in a 30 GB disk! Is this the definition of a quick scan? Also I have
noted that if you choose the Custom Scan and select some folders, WD will
scan the entire drive anyway, including registry and dll files. I even try to
scan for an empty folder (just to take out the annoying 3 days reminder on
the taskbar) and WD began scanning the Program Files folder. Is this a bug or
just the correct process? Comparing also the 3 hours (plus not completed,
since I have tu stopped) to a 6 hours scan for a Complete Scan there's no
much difference if you use WD in a notebook. I do suggest (in case of an
error) to increase WD speed or behavior when sheduling for scans. For
additional information, I have a P4 1.8 GHz notebook with 768 MB, so I don't
think is a hardware issue. Anyway, thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Guest]

Hi Winsaurus,

For comparison's sake:
I'm running 2.8GHz 512 MB RAM
Quick scan usually takes less than 2 minutes
Full scan (230,000 files odd) takes about 40 minutes.
The time frames you mention seem way too long to me.
Hang in there; lots of better informed people here will have something more
to say about this.
Best of luck.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

Yours is one of perhaps two or three that see this kind of timing issue. On
corporate desktop machines I look at, I typically see quickscans in the 1
minute to 10 minute range.

The behavior for a custom scan has been noted by many--I don't know if it is
a full quickscan before the designated object, but it must be close to that.

I'm intrigued by what makes for the huge difference between a 1 minute
quickscan on a machine I worked with yesterday, and the scans on your
machine. Mike Treit has posted a good description of the two scans--let me
see if I can quote it here:

My reading of his message is that a quickscan starts from the startup
locations and system integration points, and works out. I'm startled that
this process finds so much to work with on your system. The corporate
desktops with the 2 minute scans have very little in the notification
area--not much starting up.

[below is Mike Treit's text]
---
Yes, the quick scan is very useful. It looks at all of the actively running
processes on the machine, as well as files that are pointed to by the
various registry entries and other locations used by spyware to start
automatically or otherwise interfere with your system.

If you have a particular piece of spyware or other unwanted software that is
detected by Windows Defender, the vast majority of the time it should be
detected by the quick scan.

The full scan, in addition to performing all of the checks in a quick scan,
also examines every single file on your system. This is a quite
time-consuming operation if you have a lot of files.

I would always start with a quick scan - if it gives you a clean bill of
health, you can be pretty confident in the results. If the quick scan finds
anything, you probably should follow it up with a full scan to find any
additional junk that the malicious software dropped on your machine that may
have been missed by the quick scan. It's also a good idea to schedule the
full scan to happen periodically (every night, for instance) at a time when
you are not typically using your computer and the added time to scan all of
the files won't be noticed.

-Mike

 

[Guest]

Thanks to everyone for their quick answers!

Shannis, thanks for your comparison, but I don't think it could be hardware
issue. At least it wasn't with MSAS, which quick scan was really quick.
However, it could be what Bill stated, about the relationship between the
notification area and WD, yet my notification area is only filled with four
or six icons. Nonetheless, I do believe this must be fixed because is too
much. By the way, could it be another bug with McAfee Security Center, since
it certainly must be scanned by WD. Well, keep posting if you know anything
new. Thanks again.

Yours is one of perhaps two or three that see this kind of timing issue. On
corporate desktop machines I look at, I typically see quickscans in the 1
minute to 10 minute range.

The behavior for a custom scan has been noted by many--I don't know if it is
a full quickscan before the designated object, but it must be close to that.

I'm intrigued by what makes for the huge difference between a 1 minute
quickscan on a machine I worked with yesterday, and the scans on your
machine. Mike Treit has posted a good description of the two scans--let me
see if I can quote it here:

My reading of his message is that a quickscan starts from the startup
locations and system integration points, and works out. I'm startled that
this process finds so much to work with on your system. The corporate
desktops with the 2 minute scans have very little in the notification
area--not much starting up.

[below is Mike Treit's text]
---
Yes, the quick scan is very useful. It looks at all of the actively running
processes on the machine, as well as files that are pointed to by the
various registry entries and other locations used by spyware to start
automatically or otherwise interfere with your system.

If you have a particular piece of spyware or other unwanted software that is
detected by Windows Defender, the vast majority of the time it should be
detected by the quick scan.

The full scan, in addition to performing all of the checks in a quick scan,
also examines every single file on your system. This is a quite
time-consuming operation if you have a lot of files.

I would always start with a quick scan - if it gives you a clean bill of
health, you can be pretty confident in the results. If the quick scan finds
anything, you probably should follow it up with a full scan to find any
additional junk that the malicious software dropped on your machine that may
have been missed by the quick scan. It's also a good idea to schedule the
full scan to happen periodically (every night, for instance) at a time when
you are not typically using your computer and the added time to scan all of
the files won't be noticed.

-Mike
----

--

Hi

I don't know if this an usual behavior for WD, but in comparison with
Microsoft AntiSpyware, the Quick Scan option takes too long, more than 3
hours in a 30 GB disk! Is this the definition of a quick scan? Also I have
noted that if you choose the Custom Scan and select some folders, WD will
scan the entire drive anyway, including registry and dll files. I even try
to
scan for an empty folder (just to take out the annoying 3 days reminder on
the taskbar) and WD began scanning the Program Files folder. Is this a bug
or
just the correct process? Comparing also the 3 hours (plus not completed,
since I have tu stopped) to a 6 hours scan for a Complete Scan there's no
much difference if you use WD in a notebook. I do suggest (in case of an
error) to increase WD speed or behavior when sheduling for scans. For
additional information, I have a P4 1.8 GHz notebook with 768 MB, so I
don't
think is a hardware issue. Anyway, thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

My home machine, which is reasonably junky, takes less than 10 minutes for a
quickscan.

I don't remember the stats for my neighbors machines--they have tons of
startup items--sometime I'll go look at them--but your result is clearly out
of line.

It might be interesting to use MSCONFIG to start the thing in a clean boot
condition, and do a quickscan then, and then add stuff back in and retest,
in multiple steps.

Lot of work, though.... Maybe try some suspects first--McAfee?

--

Thanks to everyone for their quick answers!

Shannis, thanks for your comparison, but I don't think it could be
hardware
issue. At least it wasn't with MSAS, which quick scan was really quick.
However, it could be what Bill stated, about the relationship between the
notification area and WD, yet my notification area is only filled with
four
or six icons. Nonetheless, I do believe this must be fixed because is too
much. By the way, could it be another bug with McAfee Security Center,
since
it certainly must be scanned by WD. Well, keep posting if you know
anything
new. Thanks again.

Yours is one of perhaps two or three that see this kind of timing issue.
On
corporate desktop machines I look at, I typically see quickscans in the 1
minute to 10 minute range.

The behavior for a custom scan has been noted by many--I don't know if it
is
a full quickscan before the designated object, but it must be close to
that.

I'm intrigued by what makes for the huge difference between a 1 minute
quickscan on a machine I worked with yesterday, and the scans on your
machine. Mike Treit has posted a good description of the two scans--let
me
see if I can quote it here:

My reading of his message is that a quickscan starts from the startup
locations and system integration points, and works out. I'm startled
that
this process finds so much to work with on your system. The corporate
desktops with the 2 minute scans have very little in the notification
area--not much starting up.

[below is Mike Treit's text]
---
Yes, the quick scan is very useful. It looks at all of the actively
running
processes on the machine, as well as files that are pointed to by the
various registry entries and other locations used by spyware to start
automatically or otherwise interfere with your system.

If you have a particular piece of spyware or other unwanted software that
is
detected by Windows Defender, the vast majority of the time it should be
detected by the quick scan.

The full scan, in addition to performing all of the checks in a quick
scan,
also examines every single file on your system. This is a quite
time-consuming operation if you have a lot of files.

I would always start with a quick scan - if it gives you a clean bill of
health, you can be pretty confident in the results. If the quick scan
finds
anything, you probably should follow it up with a full scan to find any
additional junk that the malicious software dropped on your machine that
may
have been missed by the quick scan. It's also a good idea to schedule the
full scan to happen periodically (every night, for instance) at a time
when
you are not typically using your computer and the added time to scan all
of
the files won't be noticed.

-Mike
----

--

Hi

I don't know if this an usual behavior for WD, but in comparison with
Microsoft AntiSpyware, the Quick Scan option takes too long, more than
3
hours in a 30 GB disk! Is this the definition of a quick scan? Also I
have
noted that if you choose the Custom Scan and select some folders, WD
will
scan the entire drive anyway, including registry and dll files. I even
try
to
scan for an empty folder (just to take out the annoying 3 days reminder
on
the taskbar) and WD began scanning the Program Files folder. Is this a
bug
or
just the correct process? Comparing also the 3 hours (plus not
completed,
since I have tu stopped) to a 6 hours scan for a Complete Scan there's
no
much difference if you use WD in a notebook. I do suggest (in case of
an
error) to increase WD speed or behavior when sheduling for scans. For
additional information, I have a P4 1.8 GHz notebook with 768 MB, so I
don't
think is a hardware issue. Anyway, thanks for any suggestions.