Number of files on the machine appears TWICE the real number

  • Thread starter Thread starter Stevie M
  • Start date Start date
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Stevie M

I would like to know why Norton gets the file count wrong in scans,
and actually has been showing pretty inconsistent figures of the total
number of files it scans on my machine. I noticed years ago that the
number seemed to be going up steadily even when I didn't install new
programs and was emptying the recycler and browser cache regularly.
But lately it's become very obvious. Last week, Norton Internet
Security reported I had about 330K files on the machine, and no
security issues. Then suddenly this monday, after I had installed the
latest version of the Windows updater tool - not auto-update, but the
update manager - the pc seemed to run a bit sluggishly and the number
scanned jumped to 550K. I defragged the hard drive with the inbuilt
Windows xp utility, for some reason it could not be completed but the
system kept running without trouble. I rebooted and in a fresh Norton
scan immediately after, the number of files had dropped to 160K, and
that's roughly the result I get by adding up from properties>number of
files for each major directory.

SpaceMonger, which will survey the disk fast, says about the same:
164K. I ran a chkdsk scan when I rebooted a few hours ago, it said
just fine and the system appears all healthy.I haven't had any trouble
with Norton, it's reliable. So, what is it that makes the antivirus
see two or three times as many files as there actually are?

Apparently "lost clusters" and notices about when a file was accessed
can be read as files themselves by some programs , but I don't see
that doubling the count.

System is Windows XP SP2 - automatic update disabled but I check for
´MS updates and install most of what fits the system
Browsers: Internet Explorer 8, Opera 10.
Norton System Works 2008
Norton Internet Security 2009
No known security issues.
 
I would like to know why Norton gets the file count wrong in scans,
and actually has been showing pretty inconsistent figures of the total
number of files it scans on my machine. I noticed years ago that the
number seemed to be going up steadily even when I didn't install new
programs and was emptying the recycler and browser cache regularly.
But lately it's become very obvious. Last week, Norton Internet
Security reported I had about 330K files on the machine, and no
security issues. Then suddenly this monday, after I had installed the
latest version of the Windows updater tool - not auto-update, but the
update manager - the pc seemed to run a bit sluggishly and the number
scanned jumped to 550K. I defragged the hard drive with the inbuilt
Windows xp utility, for some reason it could not be completed but the
system kept running without trouble. I rebooted and in a fresh Norton
scan immediately after, the number of files had dropped to 160K, and
that's roughly the result I get by adding up from properties>number of
files for each major directory.

SpaceMonger, which will survey the disk fast, says about the same:
164K. I ran a chkdsk scan when I rebooted a few hours ago, it said
just fine and the system appears all healthy.I haven't had any trouble
with Norton, it's reliable. So, what is it that makes the antivirus
see two or three times as many files as there actually are?

Apparently "lost clusters" and notices about when a file was accessed
can be read as files themselves by some programs , but I don't see
that doubling the count.

System is Windows XP SP2 - automatic update disabled but I check for
´MS updates and install most of what fits the system
Browsers: Internet Explorer 8, Opera 10.
Norton System Works 2008
Norton Internet Security 2009
No known security issues.
Click to expand...

Forgot too add, in a new Norton scan just two hours ago, the number of
files was up at 410K. What *is* going on?
 
From: "Stevie M" <[email protected]>

| I would like to know why Norton gets the file count wrong in scans,
| and actually has been showing pretty inconsistent figures of the total
| number of files it scans on my machine. I noticed years ago that the
| number seemed to be going up steadily even when I didn't install new
| programs and was emptying the recycler and browser cache regularly.
| But lately it's become very obvious. Last week, Norton Internet
| Security reported I had about 330K files on the machine, and no
| security issues. Then suddenly this monday, after I had installed the
| latest version of the Windows updater tool - not auto-update, but the
| update manager - the pc seemed to run a bit sluggishly and the number
| scanned jumped to 550K. I defragged the hard drive with the inbuilt
| Windows xp utility, for some reason it could not be completed but the
| system kept running without trouble. I rebooted and in a fresh Norton
| scan immediately after, the number of files had dropped to 160K, and
| that's roughly the result I get by adding up from properties>number of
| files for each major directory.

| SpaceMonger, which will survey the disk fast, says about the same:
| 164K. I ran a chkdsk scan when I rebooted a few hours ago, it said
| just fine and the system appears all healthy.I haven't had any trouble
| with Norton, it's reliable. So, what is it that makes the antivirus
| see two or three times as many files as there actually are?

| Apparently "lost clusters" and notices about when a file was accessed
| can be read as files themselves by some programs , but I don't see
| that doubling the count.

| System is Windows XP SP2 - automatic update disabled but I check for
| ´MS updates and install most of what fits the system
| Browsers: Internet Explorer 8, Opera 10.
| Norton System Works 2008
| Norton Internet Security 2009
| No known security issues.

There are many kinds of Archive files; CAB, ZIP, JAR, CHM, etc.

If I scan 3 CHM files I may get a total count of 30 files beacuse of all the HTML files in
the 3 CHM files.
 
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