Anti virus scan taking too long

[DKnudde]

I need some help and advice. Please let me first explain that I am talking about my father's computer, which is a brand new Dell (Christmas 2006) he is a beginner and far away from me. His friend told him to run his Norton Anti Virus thorough scan because the friend thought the computer was running too slow. After 6 hours only 1/5 of the hard drive had been scanned. Any ideas why and any advice I can relay to my father over the phone?? He had been doing quick scans which showed nothing wrong. He is just learning how to go on the internet, and is very confused. If I was closer than 2000 miles away I would run over there and help him. But the question is, why is it taking Norton so long to do a thorough scan?
Thanks,
~Donna~  

[Calum]

Norton does take an inordinate amount of time to scan, but that does seem a long time.
Any idea what size HDD this is?
And any other specs?
I bet the hard drive is fragmented, tell him to stop the scan and defrag, see if that helps it.
Hope this helps.

[soybean]

Does the computer seem to be running normal for other tasks?  If so, I'm inclined to suggest removing Norton and installing AVG Anti-Virus Free.  However, if you feel he would not be able to uninstall Norton and install AVG without help, this might not be a good idea unless you can figure out a way of getting some assistance for him in doing this.  And, unfortunately, Norton can be difficult to completely remove. Obtaining a special removal tool from Symantec's (the maker of Norton) website is often necessary.

[patio]

It's also quite possible there may be background tasks starting on a timed basis which would interrupt the scan and have it start all over again...on the taskbar have him right click any icons there and select Exit. This will shut down any background programs.
Then have him start the scan before bed and let it run til it finishes...

[2k_dummy]

....or teach him how to start in safe mode and run the scan there. A lot less crap gets loaded in safe mode. And tell him how to turn off the Indexing service. Its a total resource hog.