BleepingComputer.com: Virus scan logs puzzle me-scan errors

This is all about ZoneAlarm Suite v. 5.5.094.000 with all the bells and whistles. I apologize up front for the length of this message, but I feel it's needed to make a point or a better query. Thanks in advance for any help I can get.

Virus check log, for instance ZALog2005.06.14.txt, every time it runs it looks the same. I can't even tell if anything gets scanned other than a final report about no viruses. There are tons of entries about scan failed. For instance :

1. These are segments of a text file log:

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Sorry for the look of it. I can't even tell where a sentence begins or ends.

2. In the Alerts and Logs pane, I see 100 of these lines. The ones about Spybot S&D are the only visible and all have Error E004000Fh at the end. I suspect all files get the error, it's just that I limit that pane to 100 entries. I googled and found 3 refs to this error apparently on ZA site. When I clicked on the links, the screen said "The Message you are trying to access has been deleted. Please update your bookmarks. " on all three. One of the titles indicates it's about Spybot. Interesting.

3. In the Windows\internet logs directory I see several files with names such as "vsmon_2nd_2005_06_09_20_39_06.dmp.zip". Each file is around 20 meg They might be from the virus scan days, I think they're zipped Access files or something similar. I gotta get rid of them but can't if there might be valuable information.

4. In the same directory are, what looks like daily saves, roughly 60K each file, and the text, invariably looks like this:

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I'm trying to make some sense out of this, especially the endless list of scan fails ... can anyone, please, tell me what am I looking at? I can barely manage this computer without help from this site or real system administrators at work, but they don't use ZA.

I do know some of the experts on BC aren't too keen on ZA. But I have it since before I joined BC and I do know several experts here know this sort of thing.

I'll try to help you with this.

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Those entries that you show indicate that ZA can't access Ad-Aware program files, PestPatrol\Spyware.dat (definition files), C:\WINDOWS\$NtUninstallKB826939 (Windows Update uninstall info), Spybot - Search & Destroy\Recovery\DSOExploit.zip>sbRecovery.reg,Scan Failed,Auto (Spybot Backups). This is not a concern.

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If these are all errors about Spybot I wouldn't be concerned. Again it may be reporting that it can't access the Spybot backups.

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These are dump files created for error reporting purposes. If you need to contact ZA about a problem they may ask for them.

Your #4.

I don't see anything there to be concerned about either. It seems that ZA can't scan within archives, which many other AV's are able to do. Pagefile.sys is your swap file so thats never a problem. Your not scanning D: drive, is this a Compaq or HP? I get the impression you are looking for space on your drive. If so, have a look at Hiberfil.sys.

If you do a scan and no problems are found you don't need to keep the log file for that scan. The logs for the scans that find problems can be kept for a while for diagnostic purposes. I would only keep the last "vsmon_2nd_2005_06_09_20_39_06.dmp.zip" for troubleshooting.

Thank you Leurgy.
And before I forget, congratulations on your recent promotion on this forum . With it comes a great pay raise, right? something like 10% increase over zero?

#1,2,3: Based on your answers, I can clearly delete a bunch of these files where the space is approaching 100meg. I noticed they are CSV files, I might be able to toss’m into Excel or Access, sort and filter to see what’s what some more. I picked sections I knew are known to the experts here, but there is much more.

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I’m not running out of space, but there is much trash and the unknown results of scan bother me to no end. And thanks for that Hyberfill link. I stopped using hibernation long ago when I was advised here that it is a pain, which it is, ‘cause it can’t come out of hibernation cleanly so I have to reboot anyway.

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#4: I have D drive, it is CD/DVD RW multi something or other. I also have a E drive, external hard drive, where I do backups, but it’s not something I could recover the system from.

I suspect that that’s NOT why you asked. I am guessing that you asked because you see this stuff on the C drive and no partitions. Correct. I wish I had partitions. While it doesn’t exactly belong in this forum section, I’ll answer anyway because it’s somewhat connected – is related to space to scan, time to scan, backup procedures, etc.

The system is a Toshiba Satelite A75 laptop (a fabulous machine!). It came preconfigured with XP and tons of junk I wish weren’t there at all. And only C drive. I had to use it right away, so it became obvious within minutes that I can’t change the setup any more. I don’t know how to unscramble everything at this point without loosing links, shortcuts or uninstallers.

I also don’t know what should go where. I see this wide grey line between system and my stuff (where do firewalls go, where does Office go, where to MS patches go, where do logs go …) and untill I can make this grey line razor thin I can’t touch it. I haven’t nailed down good work instructions to be able to do this in an evening or two. It’s all outside the title of this forum, but it’s of concern to me. I don’t have system administration skills to be sure I’ll do it well.

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Thanks. Actually it was 20%. I'm still waiting for the Limo ride and the free pen. Its been an interesting experience so far. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes to keep a Forum like this running smoothly, and I'm enjoying the chance to participate.

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Thats not really too difficult. When installing a program, let it install to the default location. Anything else can be installed in a folder of its own under a parent directory, similiar to My Documents (or you can use that).

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask away.