NOD32 trial v4.0.474.0 not scanning files

Clearly I'm in dire need of help. I might not have a virus, maybe not even some nasty malware, but recently the machine experienced something very, very serious.

It's pretty obvious I need some help, but what's not clear is whether or not ESET trial version scanning should be denoting either a virus or a clealry denoted issue with the scan process. Instead, ESET scanning merely trudges thru the entire os and denotes the following phrase at the end of each and every file's desciption...

'decompression could not complete (possible reasons: insufficient free memory or disk space, or a problem with temp folders)'

What led up to this point is that apparently something corrupted the MBR. I surprised myself at figuring out how to download, burn and run a recovery disk that enabled me to access the laptop's recovery window and run the 'repair my computer' (to the extent that as I understand it) which simply rebuilt the MBR, because thereafter I was able to re-boot the machine.

After that, I used system restore to go back to a point (a RP created when I regretfully installed Ad-Aware and tried running Ad-Aware along with SpyBot's S&D) and so I'm guessing either that or maybe an a potential earlier virus or malware might be what apparently* corrupted the MBR.

(*) I've yet to figure out where and what to look for in the Windows event log, hopefully to see if I can disertain why the machine refused to boot. It's a faily new HP Pavilion with a fresh OEM backup reinstall of Vista Ho-Prem.

Anyway, I believe when I restored the system, I found ESET wasn't starting up, so I re-installed it, eventually got Ad-Aware uninstalled as well as SpyBot.

I've even went back and re-set all scan setting to default, yet same scan results.

I sure hope I don't find that ESET might have let me down, but something very serious has happened and I've yet to figure out (for sure) what.

 

Please check out this web article:

http://www.eset.eu/knowledge-base/is-it-taking-an-unusually-long-time-to-scan-files

 

A repair reinstall does not guarantee full recovery of the MBR.

Once a rootkit has written to it one must weigh the options of the tedious process of malware recovery from this level compared to a fresh installation.
As you indicate, this is a relatively new installation.

You must balance the amount of time it would consume persuing one avenue or the other.

You may run a scan in safe mode and report back your findings if this was possible. The scan results would have to be analysed by ESET