Why doesn't a scan remove infections?

I did this:

- attached external hard drive
- opened 'Computer' and could see it there
- right-clicked on the drive icon
- clicked 'Scan with ESET Smart Security'
- it finished the scan showing 6 infections in the log
- I went to these locations and the infected files were still there

Why didn't ESET clean these infections? What is the point of the scan if it's just going to show a log of infections but not do anything about them?

 

Hello UncleN00b (Maybe this is what happened)

When you right click, the context menu it will leave you with 2 opportunities, you can either choose to scan files, that is most likely what you did, or you can choose directly below the Eset icon, to clean files.

Regards, Janus

 

Ah yes, that is what happened. I did not go into Advanced Options.

*confused on how that is supposed to be intuitive...*

Anyway, thanks Janus!

 

There may be times that an infected file contains data that is needed, but may be destroyed when cleaned. The default errs on the safe side. The infected files are identified, and likely quarantined, so they will do no harm.