Windows Defender Offline

[gpm]

Windows Defender Offline on USB or CD fails to start with error 0x8004cc01 - Windows Defender Offline cannot be started. Error: Unable to detect a Windows system drive. This could be due to missing drivers, and encrypted drive or a corrupted Windows installation. Unfortunately, Corrine didn't cover this error in her blog Security Garden of 3 August 2011. Any suggestions please?

 

[OldGrayGary]

The error could simply be because you have an encrypted drive (as the message itself mentions)... Why do you want to use the offline scan? Truthfully, there are stronger scanners as reasonable options. You could download the AVG or Avira "Rescue CDs" & give them a go. My favorite is the Avast Rescue CD - if you have a friend with a known-clean PC with Avast installed, they can make one for you (it's in the "Tools" menus).

For the AVG CD or USB tool:
AVG Business PC Rescue & Repair Toolkit | Free Download

For the Avira Rescue tool:
Download Avira Rescue System | Official Website

There are many others. I like the AVG/Avira tools because they can update both the program and the definitions before starting a scan.

For an on-demand only scanner that won't conflict with your installed real-time scanner, you could try Malwarebytes AntiMalware ... just remember to decline the trial offers for the full product (which would conflict with your current real time scanner). The free Malwarebytes won't conflict, it will only run manually.

If you believe you have a present, intractable malware issue, you could try the "Security Arena" sub forum here at Sysnative.

 

[gpm]

Thanks OGG, I'll try something else. I like to do an off-line scan occasionally to make sure nothing has been missed! With win7, the defender off-line scanner always worked....with the upgrade to win10 it doesn't work. The drive isn't encrypted; I'm just curious.

 

[OldGrayGary]

I'm a big fan of offline, clean-boot scans too. Tell you what, I'll test the Defender scanner later today on two Windows 10 notebooks, and see if I can duplicate your error message - or find some other result.

 

[OldGrayGary]

Update - I created a Defender CD, and it was able to start at boot & scan the Windows 10 laptops. No errors for either the start or the results. I used the 64-bit version. Note that neither of the laptops I scanned have the newer UEFI type of Bios.

I noticed, though, that on the Microsoft website from which we download the Defender Offline Scanner executable (which in turn, when executed, downloads the latest versions of the scanner & definitions) that the page shows a banner message "This page is for previous versions of Windows" ... and that when I went to the Windows 10 version of the page, no such download existed [so I went ahead and used the one for Windows 7/8/8.1]. The page for Windows 10's Defender mentions that if the locally installed Windows 10 Defender finds a file that it cannot delete, it will prompt the user to download the Offline Scanner for Windows 10's version of Defender --- it doesn't mention if that download creates an .iso file, a CD/DVD image, a bootable USB, or if it simply installs & is set to run in the pre-boot environment. If I find out anything more later on, I'll pass it on.