AntiVirus

kimmee · Mar 28, 2003

I have Norton on my computer prob is everytime it does a auto scan(once a week) it takes hours!is there anyway i can speed this up?

paulewog · Mar 28, 2003

get a better av program

Pete Harcoff · Mar 28, 2003

Today at 08:26 PM kimmee said this in Post #1

I have Norton on my computer prob is everytime it does a auto scan(once a week) it takes hours!is there anyway i can speed this up?

Try running Disk Defragmenter. If your hard drive is fragmented then any disk-intensive operation will be slowed down.

kimmee · Mar 28, 2003

ummm whats does my hard drive being fragmented mean?

Pete Harcoff · Mar 28, 2003

I'll try to explain this in as non-technical terms as possible:

Basically, your hard drive is divided into "clusters". Each cluster holds a certain amount of information (on my hard drive each cluster holds about 4000 bytes of data).

Now, when a file is written to the hard drive, the file is automatically placed into whatever clusters happened to be free (depending on the file size). For example, a file that is 8000 bytes long would occupy 2 clusters.

When your hard drive reads the file, it has to read each individual cluster that contains the data for that file. If the clusters are right next to each other on the hard drive, then this makes it easier and faster for the physical mechanism that reads the information from the drive (since all the file data is in one place).

Now, hard drive fragmentation occurs when a file is written to the disk and the clusters that file occupies are not physically next to each other on the disk. So when it comes time to read the file, the mechanism for reading the file has to go zipping all over the hard drive to read each cluster for that file. This slows down the process of reading the file.

Defragmenting your drive lines up all the clusters for each file right next to each other, thus making it faster to read the file data.

paulewog · Mar 28, 2003

Yeah, taht would help too.

I don't like Norton though. I think it's too big. I have P... hm. PC-illin or something like that (they own www.antivirus.com), and am quite satisfied with them, not to mention I haven't had a virus lately.

Of course, at the MOMENT I'm on Linux, no viruses here....

Inspired · Mar 29, 2003

You can go to http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ and use PCillin's online free antivirus also, I use it in addition to norton, it catches more trojans.

paulewog · Mar 29, 2003

trendmicro, that's what the company is. hehe

I got it free... with my motherboard. Kinda strange, but oh well, I like it.

Auntie · Mar 29, 2003

Yesterday at 09:11 PM Pete Harcoff said this in Post #3

Try running Disk Defragmenter. If your hard drive is fragmented then any disk-intensive operation will be slowed down.

It also helps to delete Temporary Internet files before running a scan, empty the Recyle Bin, etc.

paulewog · Mar 29, 2003

ooooo, if you really wanna have fun, do a Find Files or Folders search for "*.tmp"

hehe

mac_philo · Mar 29, 2003

Solution 1)Set Norton to run the full scan at a time when you aren't at the computer. 4:00am every Sunday, say.

Solution 2)Get new anti-virus software. Don't bother paying for it. There's perfectly good, free protection. Try AVG from www.grisoft.com

Solution 3)Switch to Linux and there are no viruses.

In any case, defragment your hard drive if you've never done so.

LilAngelHeart · Mar 30, 2003

Yesterday at 06:32 PM paulewog said this in Post #10

ooooo, if you really wanna have fun, do a Find Files or Folders search for "*.tmp"

hehe

What's a "*.tmp" ?

*~·´¯`·¸.~¤LïlÃñge£Heårt¤~*

AngelAmidala · Mar 30, 2003

*.tmp would be temporary files. Like stuff from the internet mostly. You get hundreds and thousands of those....

paulewog · Mar 30, 2003

yeah, and you never erally need them, and if you're ever out of space and need to amke some quickly, you probably have a couple hundred megs of space tied up in tmp files

sandyb · Mar 31, 2003

29th March 2003 at 05:55 AM paulewog said this in Post #6

Of course, at the MOMENT I'm on Linux, no viruses here....

I like linux as much as the next guy, but you do still get viruses on it. there's just not any many of the little critters...

Blackwing · Mar 31, 2003

I highly reccomend avg(www.grisoft.com), its free and reliable.

paulewog · Mar 31, 2003

Yeah, but linux viruses can't do quiet as much damage as easily, even if you do get one - and most viruses that circulate are windows viruses anyways - because you have to be logged in as root in order to really mess up things.

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