scan taking hours!!!

[jjpromo]

I've tried to find answers without having to post a new question, but I'm coming up with nothing...

My computer is an older system... 6 years old. Windows XP SP2.

I have McAfee Security Center as a part of my internet bundle of services... I don't really like it, but I don't know enough to mess with stuff so it's there anyway.

Every few weeks I run a spybot scan to pick up the few things that mcafee seems to always miss.

The past few times i have tried to run a scan, it has taken hours upon hours to run. I've uninstalled it, and then reinstalled. I have all the available updates.

I don't use my system for anything other than the most basic functions, but I have noticed that the system seems to get sluggish more frequently. The internet slows down and programs take a lot longer to open.

Any suggestions on what might be slowing down my system, and causing spybot to scan for 4-5 hours, and still only be half way through?

[drragostea]

When did this problem first occur?

Have you cleared all the cache, temp. files, and cookies from your browsers? Have you defragmented your drive recently?

What were the entries that Spybot found?

[jjpromo]

two days ago I tried to run the scan. That wast the first time I noticed it being so much slower. I have not changed anything about my system since the last time I scanned, atleast not intentionally. I haven't completed a full scan since I noticed it running so much slower because it slows the system down so much it makes any additional activity on the computer wearisome. When I stopped half way through, it listed eight entries... all cookies, from burst media, and hitbox. That was it.

I'm currently defragmenting. It hadn't been done in a while. I did clear out all the cached and temporary files, cookies, etc. Should the defragmenting help?

[drragostea]

Tell me how it goes:
What is Defragmentation?? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defragmentation)

[jjpromo]

okay, overnight, the degramenting finished up, and a full spybot scan ran. Spybot found no immediate threats. I can tell that the system in general is running faster, and the spybot scan went from running in 4 or 5 hours, to finishing in 1 or 2 hours. So I guess that's an improvement.

[drragostea]

Oof. A full Spybot-SD should not take around 1 hour or so. It seems abnormal.

The average Spybot-SD took around 20-30 minutes on my computer.

However, I can conclude that... if you have a lot of files on your computer or many running processes on your computer, I can say that it will sortof "slow" down the scan.

--
How many processes are running in the Task Manager?

Also, Spybot-SD 1.6 (much faster and improved) will be released on Monday. Which is July 7th.

:laugh: A Spybot-SD 1.6 will be much faster. I can narrow it down to 10-15 minutes on your computer. : )