How do you get rid of a threat on a backup drive

Question

I have a thread on a drive on my IMac attached via thunderbolt cable...Webroot wants me to "detach" all drives to clean the threat, however the virus/threat is on the backup drive??

Ssherjj · Accepted Answer

Hello H20polo3028,

Welcome to the Webroot Community,

May I add to @ post...

In some cases, Webroot will detect a threat that is located on your backup, such as Time Machine. If the file are in the backup, then they cannot hurt your system. You would have to restore the files from the backup to get them on the system, and at that point the Real Time Shield in Webroot would find and remove them. Even though Webroot cannot remove these files, as space for newer backups is needed the older backups will be deleted. This will delete the threats from the backup as well. I would recommend changing your settings so that you do not scan mounted drives with WSA.

We recommend if Webroot continues to detect these files that you uncheck the box next to them on the removal page. This will tell Webroot to ignore the files in their current location.

If you would like to remove these files manually from the backup in Time Machine, you can use the following steps:

Note: This action is permanent, and will impact all past backups on the given Time Machine drive, even backups from the distant archives on that drive. For this reason, be absolutely certain you want to remove an item before deleting it, otherwise you may end up missing data you would have wanted to keep.

1. Open the backup manager by pulling down Time Machine menu item and selecting, “Enter into Time Machine.”

2. Navigate to the directory location of the files/folders you want to remove.

3. Right-click on the folder or file you want to remove and select “Delete all backups of pFile Name].”

4. Confirm the removal.

As the process is the same whether you are deleting the backup of a file or an entire folder, please be careful to only select the items you wish to delete. You cannot recover these files.

Another option available to Time Machine users is to exclude the files and folders from being backed up by the Time Machine. You can add them to the exclusion list which will permanently block the files/folders from being backed up in the future. By doing this, the infected file will eventually be deleted from the backup over time and prevent it from ever getting re-introduced to the drive should it be installed on the computer again.

Please have a look here at the Mac (Webroot) User Guide,

Hope this helps?

TripleHelix · Answer

Webroot is identifying my LaCie backup drive as a threat. There are no threats identified on my computer. I do not understand how there could be a threat on the back up (I use time machine) that would not be on my computer. I think that this is a false reading. Any advice?

I suggest that you open a support ticket here https://www.webrootanywhere.com/servicewelcome.asp#

Webroot support is free with a Webroot subscription. Please post back here with any further questions you may have.

I hope this helps?

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