Does an antivirus scan always thake this long?

Question

I have a PC that uses the free antivirus software from SBC. The antispyware software does the scan in less than a minute. The antivirus software takes around 5 hours to do the scan. I do it every week. Is that normal? I have around 100k files. Is there any way of speeding things up? Thanks.

Could someone show me how to boot the computer in the safe mode? I'm not that savvy.

Answer 1

Yes, the more memory (files), the more time. You could try running the scan in the safe mode by hitting F8 as it boots up. Then reboot the computer after the scan. Also, delete the files in the temporary folder before the scan. One more thing would be to run the defragment program to compact the memory in the computer before you scan. Good luck.

Answer 2

100k in files should scan in seconds not hours. My Kaspersky scans 25 gigs in less than an hour. And KAV is considered one of the slower A-V scanners.

EDIT: SAFE MODE>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

To access Safe Mode, reboot then repeatedly press the F8 key at the first screen. When finished reboot again to return to normal mode.

Answer 3

That's funny I'm doing a scan right now and am up to one hour and wondering the same thing, I hope it doesnt take five hours.

Answer 4

boot your computer into safe mode and run the virus scan from there... not as many background and core programs will be running to take up system resources

Answer 5

I use Norton and the complete scan is done in less than one hour....I also have a lot more files.
I use to use McAfee, but it took a lot longer. So, I'd say, you get what you pay for.

Answer 6

Yes, it is normal. It depends on how big the hard drive is.