Symantec Full System Scan (SEP)

darkrats · 14 Jan 2015

Re: Symantec Endpoint Protection (12.1.5)

Under scanning you have two choices, quickscan and fullscan.
Quickscan scans only a few important files most likely to be infected.

It says a fullscan scans the whole computer.
My question is: Does this mean it scans only C drive (the OS partition) or does it mean that all drives/partions are scanned?

I could just run the fullscan and find out, but there are a lot of installation files on one of my other partitions (other than C drive) and I don't want to be surprised to see any of them deleted.

ThrashZone · 14 Jan 2015

Hi and welcome to SevenForums,
Usually when a full scan is selected a dialog box will appear for additional choices of all drives connected at that time and I suppose partitions as well,
I'm also sure there are settings you can exclude partitions/ drives from that scan although I would not probably exclude them
All drives and or partitions need to be scanned at least once,
After that is just depends on personal preference and how much you save stuff directly to the other loactions as to how much you scan them,
Cheers.

I'll just add a security suite as protective as Norton might throw a fit if you don't eventually scan them.

Chetan Savade · 19 Jan 2015

Hi,

I am Chetan Savade from Symantec Technical Support team.
Q.My question is: Does this mean it scans only C drive (the OS partition) or does it mean that all drives/partions are scanned?
--> It does scan all drivers/partitions.
As said earlier you can configure the schedule scan settings as per business requirement. However it's strongly recommend to scan all the files/folder at least once in a week.
Related articles:
About the types of scans and real-time protection
http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO55226
Setting up scheduled scans that run on Windows computers
http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO80977

Best Regards,
Chetan

darkrats · 19 Jan 2015

I understand that I can configure a custom scan.
But, when you choose to do a full scan, it begins immediately with C drive. It gives no indication that it will stop once C drive has been scanned. I would like to know if it will continue and scan all the other drives/partitions on my computer. In order to scan only C drive/partition, do I have to set up a custom scan? I have a 4TB drive used for storage and I would have to wait a very long time if SEP wants to scan that drive.

mjf · 19 Jan 2015

I don't know what Symantec Endpoint Protection (12.1.5) really is. However, I have Norton 360. The full scan scans all connected drives and the custom scan scans those drives you select. These scans can be quite quick when compared with the likes of Malwarebytes. I assume that Norton keeps some file record of unchanged files previously scanned and bypasses them. Symantec support may care to comment if they are still reading this thread.