System and method for reducing virus scan time

An information handling system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• a memory accessible by the processors;
• an hard drive controller that manages a disk that includes a plurality of sectors, wherein each sector includes a sector identifier, a protected archive bit, and a data area;
• incremental virus protection application software executed by an operating system being executed by the processors, the virus protection application software effective to:
• set a plurality of the protected archive bits in response to altering data stored in a plurality of the sectors of disk;
• identify one or more files that correspond to the plurality of sectors, the identification based upon the sectors' corresponding protected archive bits;
• scan the identified files for viruses;
• authenticate a request to reset one or more of the protected archive bits that correspond to one or more of the sectors, wherein the request is made in response to the scan;
• and
• reset the protected archive bits in response to the authentication.

A computer program product stored on a computer operable media, said computer program product comprising software effective to:

• set a plurality of protected archive bits in response to altering data stored in a plurality of sectors of a hard drive, wherein each protected archive bit corresponds to a different sector;
• identify one or more files that correspond to the plurality of sectors, the identification based upon the sectors' corresponding protected archive bits;
• scan the identified files for viruses;
• authenticate a request to reset one or more of the protected archive bits that correspond to one or more of the sectors, wherein the request is made in response to the scanning;
• and
• reset the protected archive bits in response to the authentication.