Does Spybot automatically scan external hard drives?

[valeriejane]

After major help on this forum to get rid of unwanted guests that were messing up my computer, I wanted to check that they hadn't been passed to my external hard drive while I was backing up data.

F Secure detected 4 malware items on this external hard drive when directed to scan it. It couldn't remove them.

Spybot can't find anything on my computer and says it is clean. I can't find how to direct Spybot to check the external drive, and wondered whether this is automatically included ~ or how I can check the external drive / a memory stick/a CD.

I'd be grateful for information.

[drragostea]

By default Spybot-Search&Destroy scans the default fixed drive (in most cases 'C:\'). Problem is that Spybot does not work like a single-file scanning program (that will take too long), so it works like a pattern like scanning engine for malware.

I would suggest you use an alterative scanner (I'm not saying you can't use Spybot, but I'm just saying Spybot is not optimized to scan flashdrives) to scan the flashdrive/whole external harddrives.