Scanning SSD and HDD

[funnyguy123]

I have an SSD with my os on it and have a HDD for most of my other storage. I noticed threat scan only scans stuff on my SSD, so would this still be effective as a way to scan for malware?

[daledoc1]

Hi:

 

Staff members or other more expert members will correct me if I am wrong, but I think that a Threat scan will scan the default locations only on the OS boot drive.

EDIT: This is also the default installation destination for MBAM. IOW, it installs to the OS boot drive (usually C:\) and scans that drive. To work properly, MBAM should be installed on the OS boot drive.

 

If you want to scan other drives, you might need to schedule a "Custom" scan, selecting the other, HDD to be included.

EDIT: Yes, as David points out below, the type of drive (SSD or spindle) is irrelevant, of course.

 

This page >>here<< explains the different scan types.

 

Let's see if the staff members have additional or better information about this.

 

Thanks,

[David H. Lipman]

Solid State Drives and Spindle Drives are both classed as Hard Drives.  Hard Drives under an Operating System (OS) are are known as Secondary Storage where physical Random Access Memory (RAM) is known as Primary Storage.

 

All hard drives are assigned an OS drive letter such as "C:", "E:" and "F:".  As far as Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware is concerned, it only cares about the drive letter.  The technology behind it is a moot point.  Normally the OS will reside on a drive assigned as "C:".  a DVD or CD drive will be assigned "D:" and subsequent internal and/or external storage media assigned a subsequent drive letter.

 

With that in mind...

 

You have to define what the OS is installed on and is that drive "C:" such that the OS is installed as C:\Windows and what other drive letters are assigned and their purpose.

[funnyguy123]

So since MBAM only scans my C: drive when I use threat scan and most of my stuff are on my D: drive should I still bother using threat scan or should I just use custom scan?

[David H. Lipman]

That doesn't really respond to my statement ...

 

"You have to define what the OS is installed on and is that drive "C:" such that the OS is installed as C:\Windows and what other drive letters are assigned and their purpose."

 

All you wrote was "...most of my stuff are on my D: drive..." and that is at best vague so I'll make this statement.

 

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware (MBAM) targets executable files (EXE, CPL, SYS, OCX, DLL, etc.).  These are always found in C:\Windows, C:\program files\ and C:\program files (x86)\.  In most cases an additional internal or external hard drive will be used for just Data.  These can be;  ¹DOC, DOCx, XLS, XLSx, PPT, PPS, PDF, PUB, GIF, JPG, PNG, WMV, FLV, MP3, MOV, AVI, etc.  These are files that are not executable and MBAM does not target them.

 

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1.  Note that any EXE, CPL, SYS, OCX, DLL or other executable file can be renamed to any file extension and MBAM will still target them because MBAM scans based upon content and not by the file extension.

[1PW]

Hello funnyguy123:

 

Until our highly respected expert David returns, please understand that in your particular case, the C: partition, and it's OS directories, is where the preponderance of malware will not only operate but also hide. This is NOT to say that malware won't or can't exist and operate from any other partition, but the likelihood is certainly much lower.

 

This is largely why it is recommended that MBAM's Custom scan be run much less frequently where far less vulnerable directories are.

 

EDIT: David has said it best...

Edited November 25, 2014 by 1PW