Does computer hibernation effect scan time?

Hello:

I recently purchased a new computer and have Norton 360 version 6 installed.  I have noticed that when I run a full system scan at night, by morning (10 hours later when checked), that it has only scanned about 650,000 files.  My older computer would have long since been finished.  There are also other steps in the process (ie. disc optimization) that it did not even get to.

 

My question is that since my computer goes into hibernation after 45 minutes, does this slow down or stop Norton 360 from performing its tasks?  My older computer was never set to do this.  Just seems that 10 hours is more than enough time to run a full system virus scan.

 

Thanks very much,

Scott

Hello Scott and welcome!

 

Very basically, the hibernation power saving option copies your presently open documents and programs to your hard drive, and then shuts down your computer. During hibernation, you computer will be in the same state as if you turned it off, however upon waking, the time to resume is shorter than from a cold start.   So, yes this will prevent your scan from running to completion.

 

There are wide ranging opinions for power setting options, but IMHO, 45 minutes is too short a time interval to suspend a computer's operations unless you are running on battery.

 

You should be able to adjust the power savings options to allow for a longer period when the unit is plugged into the household power supply.

 

Hope that helps!

Phil,

Many thanks.  I actually bumped it up to 45 minutes from the factory set 15 minutes a few weeks ago.  I was under the impression that hibernation would still allow things such as virus scans to proceed.  Might be best to simply turn it off as it's not overly important to me.  I just had it on because the computer company did so.

 

Thanks again,

Scott

I am glad that helped, Scott.

 

The power settings are up to you based upon your needs and usage habits.

 

Here is a good explanation of Sleep and Hibernation from Microsoft.