How long does your Antivirus scan take?

[Imzadi]

I just upgraded to the free AVG 8.0 version, as the free AVG 7.5 version expired. The 7.5 took about 43 minutes, and I felt that was kind of long. It kind of slowed my system down while it ran a daily scan.

Well, the 8.0 version took a whole 1 1/2 hours. It now comes with an anti-spyware. But while running, it put my computer fan, which may already be on it's way out as it's on more than usual, into serious overdrive. I actually had to pause the Antivirus 3 times, just to let the fan cool down, as I thought it might burn out my fan! The hour and a half didn't even include the times I paused it.

While it did find an incredible amount of adware that Spybot Search & Destroy never found, I can't have an antivirus that takes an hour and a half to run - free or not - one of the best antiviruses or not.

Any other free antiviruses you recommend?

 

[schmitty]

Avast.

 

[suzimar57]

McAfee - takes about 1/2 hour

 

[Shutterbug]

It all depends on how much is on your hard drive and how full of a scan you do.

On my one computer with tons of photos it took trend micros software 2 hours to fully scan it.

 

[jsmith]

Shutterbug is correct-the amount of time the scan takes is dependant on the size of your hard drive, the number of files, the depth of the scan-and also to some extent the amount of RAM on the computer. I use a government version of Symantec Anti-Virus (norton)-and run a deep scan every two weeks on all three machines-on my lap top which has a 400G hard drive , 4gigs of memory but a limited amount of the drive in use it takes about 2 hours-our desk top-which primary funcitons as music and photo storage-and has only 512Mg of Ram but is nearly full takes 8 hours. The solution is to run the scan at some time (mine starts at 9 PM alnernate sundays) when you will not be using the computer. ETA-yours might not take as long now that all the crud is gone

 

[peterloveswdw]

I have Trend Micro also and I run a full scan almost everyday. It takes about an hour to complete, which I don't even notice as I am usually surfing the internet (and more recently coming here) to pass the time.

 

[Imzadi]

Ah, I just uploaded a bunch of new pics. I guess that would slow things down a bit.

Thanks everyone.

 

[jfulcer]

Leave your computer on at night and schedule a scan in the middle of the night. that way it's not tying up your computer and it still get scanned. I think 1.5 is a good time, especially if your computer is older and/or has a lot of files like another poster said.

It's also possible that the 8.0 scans for more, or that your 7.5 version was not configured properly.

What fan is it that you were talking about needing to 'cool down'? Fans by nature are designed to cool the computer, not get warm themselves. When running something that uses that much processing/drive access your cooling fans will need to do more work. But as long as you've not overloaded your computer with a few extra drives/etc and all the exhaust paths are clear of dust, you shouldn't have to 'pause' anything to let it cool down. It will cool down just fine when it's done.

 

[Imzadi]

Jeff, I noticed in the last couple of months, it seems to go on more often and stay on longer. I'm not sure if I'm running more processes and I don't realise it, or if the thermostat is broken, or what?!? When the antivirus was scanning, it got really LOUD!

On the one hand, I saw the little light that looks like a spool running, so I knew the hard drive was working like crazy, during the scan. I expected that. But the fan & the whirring of the computer seemed unusually loud, like a loud, constant WHOOSH! sound. It scared me to have it running that loudly for so long - like it was in overdrive, or something.

I even looked at the fan (on the bottom of my laptop) to make sure it wasn't unusually dusty or obstructed.)

I was afraid the fan would break down, then I'd be stuck without a computer, as I wouldn't want to run it without a fan, and accidentally overheat the computer, as I'm not sure why the fan goes on so much in the first place.

 

[jsmith]

Couple of things-your fan will get louder-or seem to work harder if it is going bad-just something to be aware of-but as your computer works harder the heat sinks get hotter and and the fan has to work harder-that may be whats happening-but-since the fan is in the bottom of the laptop-try setting it up on something so the fan has a clear air intake-i.e.-i have and older toshiba thats had a rather rough life-lots of exposure to dust and temp extremes-that will get hot and shut down if the fan doesnt have clear intake-so i prop the back of the laptop up on the power supply and the problem is solved.