Why does this get different results?

[CharlieB]

Here's the scene. A friend called and thinks he has an infection on his XP system. He was told this by his ISP who could not resolve his problems. He cannot download anything (including Malwarebytes).

He brought the box over to my house. My approach is to use an adapter that lets me run his hard drive as an external drive on my PC.

Now I run Malwarebytes selecting only his hard drive as the subject of the scan. This picked up a couple of infections that I quarantined and then deleted.

The next step is to restore his drive back into his PC. Now I can go online and download Malwarebytes to his box with no difficulty. With his PC now holding Malwarebytes, I run a normal scan on his system and find several additional infections which I can dispose of.

Now the question: Why is it that scanning the hard drive as an internal device finds more malware than running it as an external device? Or conversely, Why doesn't the external scan find everything? The same updates were used in each case.

Charlie

[Mainard]

Hello Charlie,

Depending on the current logged in user, different hives of the registry (as well as the files) are scanned. This (along with different types of scans) can cause a difference of items found during a scan.

Since your friend's box was infected I suggest having it cleaned up by one of our forum experts.

As we don't deal with malware removal in the General Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Forum, you need to start a topic in the Malware Removal forum so a qualified helper can help you fix any malware related problems/infections you may have.

You can follow the directions below and someone will assist you with running scans on your system to see if they can detect anything.

First, try the directions within exile360's FAQ Here. Afterwards, Please print out, read and follow the Directions HERE, skipping any steps you are unable to complete. Then post a NEW topic here.

One of the expert helpers there will give you one-on-one assistance when one becomes available.

After posting your new post make sure under options that you select Track this topic and choose one of the Email options so that you're alerted when someone has replied to your post.

Alternatively, as a paying customer, you can contact the help desk at support@malwarebytes.org

Thank you very much.