a method and apparatus for accelerating a load point scanning process . in one embodiment , the method and apparatus comprise creating , at an initial scan , a detection area map identifying files referenced by detection areas . upon a subsequent scan , determining whether the detection area has changed with respect to the detection area map . if the detection area map has changed , re - evaluating the detection area and repopulating the detection area map entry . in another embodiment , the method and apparatus avoid rescanning files as allowed using information in a file attribute cache .