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How long can I expect the initial scan to take?

  • 7 November 2015
  • 8 replies
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I have a MacBook Pro. I just installed Webroot Anti-virus. I have a 500GB drive, with 350GB of data on it. Can anyone tell me how long the initial scan should take? Thanks.
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Best answer by Wanderingbug 9 November 2015, 16:21

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Userlevel 7
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Hello ?,
 
Welcome to the Weboot Community,
 
To be honest I have a 500GB HD as well in my iMac and I have used 316GB.
 
Sometimes it takes 30-40 minutes and other timetimes it takes an hour. But my Mac is a 2007.. so I am not sure if that has anything to do with the longer scanning times? I am also running El Capitan.
 
Please look at The Mac User Guide  http://live.webrootanywhere.com/content/550/Running-Scans
 
Do get back if you have more questions.
 
 
Hope this helps?
 
 
Thanks. That sounds about right. Mine is at hour 88, and tells me it has scanned some 27 million files!! It claims to have found 150+ threats. So I'm puzzled to say the least. Everything was fine til I accidentally hit the wrong link at a sketchy site. I'm thinking of wiping the drive and getting a clean install of a new OS. I'd like it if webroot could help, but I have serious doubts at this point. 
Userlevel 7
Badge +62
Hello,
 
I am sorry to hear that. But before you reinstall your OS would you submit a support ticket which is free of charge.@shorTciruiT could you show the support link? I am not by my computer right now?
 
?  Done.    (shorTcircuiT)
 
I did as you suggested, and submitted a ticket. Webroot crashed at about hour 92. Hopefully support has some ideas. Thanks.
Userlevel 7
Badge +62
Hello ?,
 
Can you tell me if you are Scanning Mounted Drives? If you are please uncheck and just do a Full Scan as shown here:
 
http://live.webrootanywhere.com/content/553/Changing-Scan-Settings because scanning the Mounted drives will take days.
 
If you do have this many threaats then yes a Support Ticket is the way to go. If you are scanning your Back up drive. The Time Machine. then please read this here below by ?
 
"In some cases, Webroot will detect a threat that is located on your backup, such as Time Machine. If the file are in the backup, then they cannot hurt your system. You would have to restore the files from the backup to get them on the system, and at that point the Real Time Shield in Webroot would find and remove them. Even though Webroot cannot remove these files, as space for newer backups is needed the older backups will be deleted. This will delete the threats from the backup as well.
We recommend if Webroot continues to detect these files that you uncheck the box next to them on the removal page. This will tell Webroot to ignore the files in their current location.
If you would like to remove these files manually from the backup in Time Machine, you can use the following steps:
Note: This action is permanent, and will impact all past backups on the given Time Machine drive, even backups from the distant archives on that drive. For this reason, be absolutely certain you want to remove an item before deleting it, otherwise you may end up missing data you would have wanted to keep.
1. Open the backup manager by pulling down Time Machine menu item and selecting, “Enter into Time Machine.”
2. Navigate to the directory location of the files/folders you want to remove.
3. Right-click on the folder or file you want to remove and select “Delete all backups of [File Name].”
4. Confirm the removal.
As the process is the same whether you are deleting the backup of a file or an entire folder, please be careful to only select the items you wish to delete. You cannot recover these files.
Another option available to Time Machine users is to exclude the files and folders from being backed up by the Time Machine. You can add them to the exclusion list which will permanently block the files/folders from being backed up in the future. By doing this, the infected file will eventually be deleted from the backup over time and prevent it from ever getting re-introduced to the drive should it be installed on the computer again"
 
Please let us know if you are scanning the Mounted Drive. I'd advise you to stop scanning this drive and look here as well:
 
https://community.webroot.com/t5/Webroot-SecureAnywhere-Antivirus/How-to-stop-scan-and-clean-bad-files-found/m-p/206923#M17126
 
Are these threats from the main drive? If so it's good to submit that support ticket if Webroot is crashing.
 
 
 
OK. Scanning a mounted drive. I'll try your suggestion. Thanks.
Userlevel 7
Badge +62
Please keep us posted!
 
Thanks!
Userlevel 7
@ wrote:
Thanks. That sounds about right. Mine is at hour 88, and tells me it has scanned some 27 million files!! It claims to have found 150+ threats. So I'm puzzled to say the least. Everything was fine til I accidentally hit the wrong link at a sketchy site. I'm thinking of wiping the drive and getting a clean install of a new OS. I'd like it if webroot could help, but I have serious doubts at this point. 
The structure of OS X backups is what causes the scans to take so long.  it basically is rescanning your whole system with each back up.  I recommend that you disable scan mounted drives and your scan time should be much faster.

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