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Without my knowing it, my antivirus program (VirusBarrier) scanned my Time Machine backups. It didn't find any viruses or quarantine any files, so I don't think it made any changes to my backups, but I don't know. Since Time Machine backups can be damaged or corrupted if changed, I'm wondering if I can trust the backups now or if I should erase and start over, just to be safe.
Get rid of Virus Barrier > Uninstalling Intego VirusBarrier from Mac OS X
There are no Mac viruses to find.
VirusBarrier will only cause issues with your Mac.
There are no Mac viruses to find.
That is not really true.
As for scanning Time Maching backups... Donna, your backups are fine. Per our discussion elsewhere, it doesn't sound like any modifications were made to the backups by VirusBarrier, so there should not be any problems keeping them.
However, since you have posted two separate topics on this subject on these forums, as well as contacting me through my site, with this last post made after already receiving an answer, it seems that this is causing you a high level of anxiety. You may wish to simply erase the backups and start over, just to give yourself peace of mind.
Thank you -- you're absolutely right. I created a separate post because you answered the question about the first one (scanning compressed files). But it has been bothering me. Thank you for your thoughtful answer.
it has been bothering me.
A backup is something that you rely on, and that should give you peace of mind. Even though it's not strictly necessary to wipe the backup, from what you've said, it could be worthwhile if that is what is necessary to give you peace of mind.
On the other hand, having only one single backup isn't necessarily the safest thing in the world. It's better than none, but far from perfect. I usually recommend that people maintain two separate backups as a minimum, ideally created with two different programs (such as Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner, which is what I use). This protects against loss of data due to corruption in one backup.
Instead of wiping your current backup, perhaps you should just start some supplemental backups. Get an additional external hard drive (or two) and use some other backup tool to back up to it/them. I maintain two additional hard drives, beyond my Time Machine backups, and one of those drives is always off-site (in a bank safe deposit box). I swap those two drives periodically, so even if there's a fire or burglary, I still have all the data on the drive that's at the bank.
Thank you for helping me with this, for the excellent and compassionate advice, and for describing the system you use, which I plan to use as a model. And for your excellent, knowledgeable, and levelheaded website.
Excuse me but there are currently no Mac viruses making the rounds currently.
Have a little faith in Apple.
I got the antivirus program for not just viruses, but any kind of malware.
Macs have had malware infect them (though obviously not anywhere close to Windows computers).
Also, just because there isn't a current threat doesn't mean there won't be one in the future.
With the risk still being somewhat low, I do wonder whether the benefits of antivirus programs are worth the trouble they can sometimes cause. Although obviously it would be worth it if it did prevent a malware infection.
Carolyn Samit wrote:
Excuse me but there are currently no Mac viruses making the rounds currently.
Have a little faith in Apple.
Carolyn, you should be familiar with the context in which most people use the word "virus" - and if you aren't, you should read the link I referred to above. And as for having faith in Apple, that faith has recently been shaken:
Time to re-evaluate safety of Mac OS X
Having faith is good, so long as it's not blind faith.
Time Machine backups affected by antivirus scan?
