Error 0x80070079: The semaphore timeout period has expired
Whenever I try to copy large files over a wireless network (Laptop > Desktop) I get the following error:- Error 0x80070079: The semaphore timeout period has expired I've done a search on Google and have found that a number of other users are having the same problem, but no-one seems to have a fix for it. Can anyone help? (I'm running Vista Ultimate on both my Laptop & Desktop)
December 10th, 2007 10:54pm

Can anyone please help????
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December 11th, 2007 10:35pm

Hello Ady, Thanks for your post! This issue may be a little complex and require some steps to troubleshoot: 1. Update the driver of wireless network adapters in both of your computers. 2. Temporarily disable all the firewalls and anti-virus applications, then check the issue again. 3. To exclude the factors from other services and applications, do a clean boot to check the issue and perform Step 4.(KB929135) How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vistahttp://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;929135 4. With clean boot, try to apply thehotfixes contained in the following KB articles:(KB932045) Error message when you use a network connection to copy a large file from one Windows Vista-based computer to another Windows Vista-based computer: "The connection has been lost" http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;932045(KB932063) Several problems occur on a Windows Vista-based computer when you work in a wireless network environment http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;932063 If problem still persists after steps above, this issue is very possibly due to network devices or configurations, please let me know: 1. Whether this problem occurs in wired network? 2. If strengthening the network signals, the problem can be changed? 3. What size of files will lead to this error. 4. Does this error terminate the copy process? 5. Models of the wireless network adapter and wireless router. More details about his issueare preferred. Thanks! Have a nice weekend! Regards, Lionel Chen Microsoft Online Community Support
December 14th, 2007 8:19am

Hi,I'm getting the same error but in a different -- seemingly less complicated -- context. I am trying to backup my main drive to an external eSATA drive. Every file copied without incident except for one movie, a 143 meg WMV. Here are some facts about my situation1) the folder contains 90 videos (allhomemadesocopyprotectionisn'ttheissue)2) the video sizes range from 1.2 gigs to 34 megs3) copying was smooth and fast, except for that one file4) I thought that it might be the eSATA drive but I got the same error when copying to the same HD, same folder or different folder. Clearly wirelessness, network issues and other connections (USB, firewire, etc) aren't the problem.5) I'm running Vista Home Premium with all the latest updates on an HPMediaCentercomputerrunning AMD x2 5200+ with 4 gigs RAM6) I tried repeatedly, even after multiple reboots and still got the error for this one file7) I tried ZIPping it and got the same error8) Strangely, it seems to play just fine in Windows Media PlayerThere are hints of viral activity and I've had 3 Blue Screen crashes today (which is why I'm backing everything up before reformatting my entire drive).My last hope is to upload it to a site like Yousendit and then download it. Evenif you don't know what's wrong, can you offer any tricks togetaroundtheerrorand backup the file?Please help. Thanks for any advice in advance,Sam
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January 10th, 2008 12:46pm

Sam, Like you, I got the message while attempting to copy files within one system. 1. The files were large videofiles (100MB to 600MB); 2. Some smaller files of the same type copied successfully, but not all; 3. The hardware involved is an external Plextor 810UF (USB) drive to my "D" (work) drive; 4. Sometimes the timeout would occur while the system said it was calculating the time of the procedure. At other times it would start the process and then hangup. (A couple of times I got a message which said the process would take 45000+ days and 12 hours. I really don't feel I should have to wait125 years for things to happen. <GG>) I am able to work around the problem by connecting the Plextor toan XPPC and then transferring the files to my VistaPC (same drive and directory that I tried before) via a cabled Linksys router. So far that works flawlessly. Therefore I'm sure the problem isn't in the network. I hope that a solution is forthcoming because the work around is a bother. Bill
January 15th, 2008 4:57pm

I haven't found an answer to this problem anywhere, yet it seems to be quite common.I'm using HP MediaSmart Server to do automatic backups. Everything was working ok until one day I got the following error:An unexpected exception ocurred on the computer. COMException. The semaphore timeout period has expired (Exception from HRESULT: 0X80070079) at System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHRIntern at (Int32errorcode IntRtrerrorInfo).I checked the the Crashdump and it referred to Pinnacle11 (video editing application), and cooincidentally, the problem only started after I had been editing a couple of video files.Has anyone yet found a fix to this problem?Steve
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March 24th, 2008 12:06pm

Well I don't have the answer but perhaps I can simplify the problem even more for MS. I am running Windows Home Server and everytime WHS tries to go do a dailybackup of my workstation, the backup fails with these twoerror messages - Event Type:ErrorEvent Source:HomeServerEvent Category:BackupEvent ID:272Date:4/2/2008Time:7:53:58 AMUser:N/AComputer:TNETHS01Description:Unexpected error 0x79 from WriteFile on D:\folders\{00008086-058D-4C89-AB57-A7F909A47AB4}\CT2.C.VolumeCluster.4096.dat: The semaphore timeout period has expired. Event Type:ErrorEvent Source:HomeServerEvent Category:BackupEvent ID:267Date:4/2/2008Time:7:53:58 AMUser:N/AComputer:TNETHS01Description:Client Backup server failed at d:\qhsv1_rtm_qfe\qhs\src\backup\util\diskfile.cpp(421) By reading the forums, it definitely seems that the backup is hitting a large video file and then crashing. I have many video files over 200 MB in size and while I can't tell what video file it is hitting in these error messages, I'm sure this is what is happening. Many of my larger video files are .mkv format which may also be related somehow. If anybody finds the solution before me, please let me know. Thanks.
April 2nd, 2008 4:28pm

Lionel Chen - MSFT wrote: Hello Ady, Thanks for your post! This issue may be a little complex and require some steps to troubleshoot: 1. Update the driver of wireless network adapters in both of your computers. 2. Temporarily disable all the firewalls and anti-virus applications, then check the issue again. 3. To exclude the factors from other services and applications, do a clean boot to check the issue and perform Step 4.(KB929135) How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vistahttp://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;929135 4. With clean boot, try to apply thehotfixes contained in the following KB articles:(KB932045) Error message when you use a network connection to copy a large file from one Windows Vista-based computer to another Windows Vista-based computer: "The connection has been lost" http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;932045(KB932063) Several problems occur on a Windows Vista-based computer when you work in a wireless network environment http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;932063 If problem still persists after steps above, this issue is very possibly due to network devices or configurations, please let me know: 1. Whether this problem occurs in wired network? 2. If strengthening the network signals, the problem can be changed? 3. What size of files will lead to this error. 4. Does this error terminate the copy process? 5. Models of the wireless network adapter and wireless router. More details about his issueare preferred. Thanks! Have a nice weekend! Regards, Lionel Chen Microsoft Online Community SupportWell this did'nt work for me.Any other solution?Using XP Prof. Service Pack 3 beta.
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April 8th, 2008 11:06pm

Hi All, Similar problem with backing up one laptop running Vista Ultimate x86on to a WHS over a 1 gigabit LAN wired connection (DLINK G604T+ Netgear switch); the laptop contains some large video files (DivX, .iso) 800mb - 2 gb and the backup proceeds until about 35% with the same 267 error previously described in the event log on the WHS, and a report on the client laptop that there was a problem accessing a specific file on the WHS server. I have no problems backing up the desktop running XP pro that has also has some smaller home movie files on it in their original state, on two WD raptors RAID 0 on a silimage controller. This is really ironic in a truly MS sense, that a server specifically designed to backup your media so you can never lose them to a drive crash or viral event or whatever hole nobody noticed, won't back up your 'precious memories' on a vista machine. Since my desktop doesn'texhibit the problem, Iwill be keeping all my video files on that machine having removed them from my vista laptop and see if the problem resolves. The only other suggestion I can make to vista users until a fix is found is to eihter burn all your larger video files to DVD or a high capacity removable usb drive, or revert a machine to XP if you can and use that to store video media files. If you happen to get tired of being a slave to the machine, like I do, just remember you can always turn it off and go play someplace else... and if you are considering buying WHS and only have vista 'clients' hold off for now. I will report back once my video files have been swapped over to the xp machine and see ifI can get a decent usable backup of this laptop on the WHS. There also seem to be references to issues with my shadow copy drives in my WHS event log as well. Apparently they can't grow. A truly underwhelming experience.
April 15th, 2008 3:22pm

Hello Again, Yep my 'workaround' worked for me. After removing all of my large media files includingan image that was over 7gb (a game beta), by burning most of them to disk and deleting them from the hard drive (+ emptying recycle bin) afterwards, I finally managed to back up this vista laptop. Given that I didn't change any other aspect of my config, and backed up the laptop the way Iusually dowith Acronis True Image beforehand, one can only summise that WHS has issues backing up large video files, or video files of certain file formats. I guess this method atleast gets around the problem and in no meaningful way identifies the absolutes and specifics of either the actual problem or how it can be resolved per se, but it does crudely isolate the issue and privide a stop-gap until someone way mucho intelligent than I with the time to spare can get down to tin tacks and figure it out thoroughly! That's about the longest sentenceI have ever written in a post. If this helps someone avoid losing a file, like me for instance, I guess it was worth the cognitive effort. Hope it provides some short-term helps toothers. Good luck.
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April 16th, 2008 7:47am

I also had this problem when i tried to copy over the cable or wireless connection from laptop to desktop. the workaround that I tried is to give the copy command from the desktop to copy from laptop to desktop.
June 3rd, 2008 11:22am

Same problem here: Error 0x80070079: The semaphore timeout period has expired Error occurs multiple times when transferring filesof 10MB and smaller (no large files at all) on a shared external USB harddisk connected to PC1 to another folder on the same external USB harddisk from a laptop. Copy command is issued from PC2. In my opinion this is NOT caused by a network issue or should not be possible to be caused by the network. PC1 (OEM Desktop) - Wired Gbit LAN: MS Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 Shared external HD with full rights to everyone PC2 (Lenovo Laptop)- Wired Gbit LAN: MS Windows VistaBusiness Switch: 3Com OfficeConnect with 8 Gigabit ports External USB HD: USB Western Digital Elements (400GB) ( I could not find any entries in the eventviewer about this error. )
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July 13th, 2008 5:24pm

This is very interesting. The current trend is laptops and video files. I am also having this problem with a Dell D610 latitude running XP Pro SP2. I am capturing video from my Canon GL1 via 1394a PCMCIA card into Sony Vegas 8 Pro. All I get is the error code 0x80070079. It will randomly occur during the capture process into uncompressed AVI's. It is rather frustrating because I was considering that my firewire card was bad, but reading other peoples' problems leads me to think otherwise. Is it possible that it is a problem with a hard drive controller common to laptop motherboards? My controller is an Intel 82801FBM UATA controller. Just something to think about. It would be nice to solve this issue. By the way, this is really the only issue I have with this machine, everything else works great and memory checks out fine with MemTest.
October 5th, 2008 9:02pm

It's not related to videofiles, it's related to large files. I have a Dell Inspiron 1720, Vista Home, a HP MVP 5020, and a Linksys 54G router. With wireless connection, any files larger than a few mb's causes complete disconnection after a few seconds, IP is lost and has to be reaccuired. With wired connection any size file can be transferred. On my Mac, I have never seen this problem. Don't have any solution but, are very annoyed with this.BR.T.
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October 19th, 2008 2:59am

I have recently received same message on my laptop running XP.Trying to upload photos using a media card reader. The SD card is a 1GB card.I have both a laptop and desktop running XP(updated), but when the media reader is plugged in the USB with the SD card installed, the desktop locks up. I don't remember having this issue using a smaller sized SD card, say 16MB.My wife has a laptop running Vista, I have had no problems with that particular machine.
December 7th, 2008 5:42pm

Actually it is neither video nor large files that is the only culprit. I have an HP Pavillion dv9413cl Notebook running Windows Vista Ultimate. It has two hard drives. I just added the second hard drive to the machine and installed a fresh clean install of Vista on the newly installed hard drive as it is now my primary drive. The old hard drive has all the old data on it. I am in the process of cleaning up the drive and consolidating needed data. In the process of deleting a few files I received this error, not only through Windows Explorer but through a command prompt as well. Here is my output of the command prompt window. F:\Users\Public\Downloads>del *.*F:\Users\Public\Downloads\*.*, Are you sure (Y/N)? yF:\Users\Public\Downloads\ContactChangedStatus.wavThe semaphore timeout period has expired.F:\Users\Public\Downloads\ContactInvisible.wavThe semaphore timeout period has expired.F:\Users\Public\Downloads\FileTransferRejected.wavThe semaphore timeout period has expired. F:\Users\Public\Downloads>dirVolume in drive F is<HOSTNAME_F>Volume Serial Number is <SerialNumber> Directory of F:\Users\Public\Downloads 01/09/2009 12:26 PM <DIR> .01/09/2009 12:26 PM <DIR> ..05/22/2008 05:07 PM 340,672 ContactChangedStatus.wav05/22/2008 05:07 PM 274,460 ContactInvisible.wav05/22/2008 05:07 PM 296,800 FileTransferRejected.wav 3 File(s) 911,932 bytesAs you can see we are looking at sound files of a few hundred K. So not video or large files.This also rules out any intra drive transfers, network contention, or the like as I am just trying to delete the files not transfer them over some medium.
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January 9th, 2009 10:46pm

This is a weird one. I'm also thinking that large video files are just one symptom of the problem, because I am getting it whenever I try to access a shared folder on another PC via Windows Explorer. Everything had been working fine when both machines were running Vista Ultimate, and I never encountered this error. But since upgrading my laptop to the Windows 7 beta, I have never been able to connect to a share on another machine without seeing this.I'm pulling my hair out trying to finx a solution - sure hope someone comes up with something before I go bald! :-) Rob
January 15th, 2009 8:39pm

I've got the same msg trying to use Vista Ultimate Backup. I have two internal sata drives and I'm attempting to back up from C to D when it halts with this msg. I then tried to copy my docs folder using the desktop. Same problem. It's SP1 with all drivers current. I used to tell everyone how good Vista is but this is really concerning me.
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January 25th, 2009 10:12pm

This error is usually the result of a DHCP renewal. Switch to using static IP addresses and see if that helps. You are most likely experiencing a DHCP address renewal during your file copy operations. If you need to use DHCP, try increasing the lease period, and if you don't control the lease period, find out what that period is and do an ipconfig /release and thenan ipconfig /renew in a command prompt to cause the lease not to renew itself during your backup window.
January 27th, 2009 10:42pm

I ran into this problem while attempting to do a backup of my C drive. Running a check disk on the drive cleared up the problem.
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February 13th, 2009 7:38pm

i found a solution for people trying to move video on to sd cards without coming up with these errors.1. download and install winrar.2.select your file and click on "add to archive".3.now select "compression method" and select "good".4.now you need to split your file by selecting "split your volume in to bytes" and select zip100:98078kbthis will now split your file in to 98mb size pieces, i did this with a 696mb and got 6 seperate rar files.when it has finished, move them one by one on to your card and when you have done this select them all and click "extract here"this will now unzip and piece your vid back together.i hop ppl out there find this helpfull in some way ;)
March 7th, 2009 12:19am

This problem seems to be about DHCP. I get it when my NIC suddenly stops holding an IP lease even if there is no traffic. I have the latest NIC driver so none of MS' suggestions help. It has nothing to do with any router, ISP as I have tried many combinations. The OS seems fine. I've tried AutoNegotiation and 10MBFD. Same problem. This has wasted about two weeks of my life. Any help would be appreciated. My NIC has many undocumented settings but I have them all on the default and none seem to have anything to do with timeouts. Power management is 'always on' for the NIC and OS. It is a NVIDIA 10/100/1000 NIC.
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March 15th, 2009 7:59pm

I did not mean to click propose as answer. I was reading the button as Propose AN Answer, my bad. I have had a lot of problems on my home network transfering lots of data between 2 machines. The main problem child is my Vista machine. I think the NIC in it has some compatibility issues but what I did for a workaround was install sync toy. It is a great little utility for syncing folders between machines. It has built in retries so even if your transfer bags it, you will not have so start at the beginning. You will not have to click no or yes to all on overwrite if you have to start again on a large multi file transfer. It will scan source and destination and only copy whatever files still need copied. Give it a shot. I love it.http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c26efa36-98e0-4ee9-a7c5-98d0592d8c52&DisplayLang=enHave fun and let us know if this gets around the timeout errors. What's the worst that could happen?
June 30th, 2009 9:40pm

Well, since about half the people on this aren't transferring over a network, I would say that DHCP isn't the problem, at least in those cases. I for one am getting this error transferring files from a 256MB USB thumb drive and from a 120GB external USB HDD to my IBM T41p Laptop running Windows XP Pro SP3. The smallest file I have had this trouble with is a 29.8MB data file. I am also getting the error while simply trying to access folders on these drives that contain large amounts of data in them. I suspected it was a problem with my USB controller as I recently started getting other USB related errors about my USB 2.0 services not working with the device even though all of my drivers are updated and the host controllers indicate they are USB 2.0 capable. First, I tried updating my BIOS. I had no change after doing this. Naxt, I installed a USB 2.0 capable PCMCIA card. I am no longer getting the USB errors this way but I am still getting the "semaphore timeout period" error. So I don't think it is related to the USB ports. Oh, and just for te record, this is a pretty fresh install of the O/S so everything is still pretty clean. I would say that this error appears to be a generic error that appears whenever something times out during data transfer, regardless of the medium or protocol, on machines running MS Windows XP and Vista O/S. What causes it in each case could be different, thus the difficulty in troubleshooting. Consequently, I doubt that one fix will solve everyones problem, but perhaps through this forum we can dial it down to all of the most common causes and fixes. I have tried all the ones here for my case with no luck, and I can see that others have had the same trouble. If anyone has any ideas about my particular situation please advise. I will try anything at this point.
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July 5th, 2009 1:06am

Although I agree this error is not exclusive to networking, this thread was started (almost two years ago now) by someone with a network issue and is logged under networking. (" Windows Client TechCenter > Windows Vista IT Pro Forums > Windows Vista Networking ") I've seen this error whilst trying to access a suspected faulty IDE drive attached via a USB interface. (Size and type of files irrelevant) It seems to me if you want to start to understand semaphore timeouts you can just leave out the word "semaphore" ...
August 6th, 2009 10:59am

Well to those that bother to keep track of these issues...I for one am still having the same drama. For extra interest, it does not happen across a wired LAN!Will (or perhaps they have) MS fix this?Vista on HP Pavilion dv5 AND static IP address. Server is Ubuntu 8.04. Vista is the only OS that has this drama.Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
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August 27th, 2009 9:54am

"Me too" I've been getting this with my Windows Home Server for the past 6 days. Checked the Event Log, rebooted the server, searched the web. Still fighting it. Posted something on the Home Server Forum earlier, will see if that leads to anything.
August 30th, 2009 7:13am

The moderator on the WHS forum suggested this, and it worked for me:"Try running chkdsk /r on all the drives of the client having the problem."Good luck to all others.Greg
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August 30th, 2009 5:25pm

Whenever I try to copy large files over a wireless network (Laptop > Desktop) I get the following error:- Error 0x80070079: The semaphore timeout period has expired I've done a search on Google and have found that a number of other users are having the same problem, but no-one seems to have a fix for it. Can anyone help? (I'm running Vista Ultimate on both my Laptop & Desktop) Hi guys, I experienced this trouble for about a week, trawling forums and googling to the point where i had just about given up.Microsoft are no help at all, they know this problem existsyet ignore all requests of help to find a solution. Anyway, I managed to resolve this issue by installing a patchcalled 'Vista TCP/IP & UAC AutoPatch'.Moreinfo here http://www.netfresco.com/tech/network-copy-failure/ or directly download the patch from here http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Network-Tweak/TCP-IP-Limit-AutoPatch.shtmlThis solution worked for me and i have no hesitation inrecommending it.BTW this patch is vista 32 and 64 related, so if you are an XP user then unfortunately this may not be of any help.Good luck guys.Brassnex
September 6th, 2009 5:20pm

I too received this error last night. I was backing up a brand new installation of Ultimate, do an existing 500GB WD sata drive. My dilema, is that it has appeared to corrupt my hard disk. After I received this error, I rebooted and the drive is no longer available. I supposed it is possible that I have a hardware issue with my controller, but...
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September 9th, 2009 9:53pm

Me Too. I bought a new 500gb imation apollo hard drive. was worried about losing my data since moving country and leaving old backup at home. running my first backup. go out and come back home. first weird thing that happened is all of my torrents I was downloading had disappeared, then computer starts freezing, receive 'the login process has failed to create the security options dialogue box". I wonder if it has to do with installing the new backup drive (USB). Very frustrating. Now trying to back up so that I can install everything from scratch, but getting the timeout error!! grrrr
October 7th, 2009 7:53am

Hello, here is solution for problems with sdhc memory sticks (or beter problems with Ricoh card reader).
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November 13th, 2009 10:12pm

Hi guys, I experienced this trouble for about a week, trawling forums and googling to the point where i had just about given up.Microsoft are no help at all, they know this problem existsyet ignore all requests of help to find a solution. Anyway, I managed to resolve this issue by installing a patchcalled 'Vista TCP/IP & UAC AutoPatch'.Moreinfo here http://www.netfresco.com/tech/network-copy-failure/ or directly download the patch from here http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Network-Tweak/TCP-IP-Limit-AutoPatch.shtmlThis solution worked for me and i have no hesitation inrecommending it.BTW this patch is vista 32 and 64 related, so if you are an XP user then unfortunately this may not be of any help.Good luck guys.Brassnex And may I ask if anyone else has tried this suggested "patch" please?Thanks! Hard an OS that is fit for purpose.
November 16th, 2009 2:11am

HelloI have lately the same problem. I changed my NAS from Thecus N5200PRO to N7700Pro. Copying to this new NAS causes this error. As soon as round about 40MB/s are copied the wireless connection aborts and never came back. I have to unplug the router and reboot it to get it working again.Info:Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit (Intel WiFi 5100 AGN - latest driver v13)Router -> LinkSys WRT54G (Wireless G - 54 MBit Connection).Observation:Even due to the fact that the router not supports 802.11n some moments before the wireless network vanishes the connection speed is shown as 300 Mbits connection.
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November 22nd, 2009 7:34pm

Microsoft is incredulous, ignoring this long-standing "semaphore timeout" issue.I OFTEN get this "semaphore timeout" on my VISTA BUSINESS system when even trying to do a "dir" command on my Buffalo NAS (network attached storage) via the mapped drive.I believe this is simply a timeout regarding the response from the NAS (or any drive share).I believe the timeout is seemingly random, thus why some people experience it on even small files, but with large file you increase the liklihood of a timeout due to more opportunities for it to happen given the longer period of time.Note: I also sometimes get error, "The specified network name is no longer available" when even doing a "dir" command.It is not DHCP as suggested earlier, because I have a static IP.I am wireless, and wireless often gets brief interruptions in data streams, so my guess is that it is that. You can such interruptions such as when you watched some streamed videos from the Internet and they simply stop altogether - very frustrating!MY FIX:As a test, I connected to my network via ETHERNET (LAN) CABLE, rather than using wireless, and over the past hour of doing periodic copies, I have not had any timeouts.This doesn't explain the problem those of you are having with USB and SD cards... but, perhaps whatever device you're using is so slow, say, an SD class 2 card, that timeouts result, so perhaps and SD class 6 card wouldn't give such an error. Similar for the USB product, perhaps the attached item only communicates at on USB1 speedsand not USB2 speed?So, Microsoft needs to do something about the timeout or the handling of sparatic disconnect states to allow a resume upon reconnection????I also like the idea of doing the CHKDSK /R that was suggested by someone else above - it cannot hurt, and who of us do this even once a year!? It should be done as regular maintenance. Do it on both your PC and on your NAS or USB or SD drives.
November 26th, 2009 5:09am

I have the same problem with both network and external HDD via USB. I hope someone will come up with a solution.
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November 27th, 2009 8:19pm

Don't as me why but the follwing command "work-around-ed" the problem within my network (just execute in command shell):netsh int tcp set global autotuning=disabledBut MS should really soon come up with a proper solution. This is dam annoying!
November 27th, 2009 11:29pm

Well if it makes any difference, I upgraded from Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Professional and I am still having the same problem. I have been working with MS for over a month now with no resolution yet. My backups fail with my Outlook file - which is under 1Gb and now the Windows Media database is failing as well. I have both wireless & a lan cable plugged into my laptop and the external HD is brand new Seagate 1.5TB. It's amazing that this has been going on for so long with no resolution from MS.
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December 5th, 2009 8:02am

Rosedio,Often you cannot backup files that are open, never can backup an open .pst files (outlook files for home use).Make certain your outlook.exe is closed -- I would suggest ctrl-alt-del and make sure no outlook.exe is running (I've had several times it stays running even if I use file>exit from the menu).Similarly, database files will not backup if the database engine is running. In your case of Windows Media database, make sure to first stop service windows media. Click START > RUN> ..type in.. services.msc > find "windows media" item(s) and stop it (personally, I have them disabled ).. also stop any SQL service(s) you may see on your PC for other databases...Really, "backup" is best run in safe mode which has a minimal # of running services and running programs that are locking up files.... That's why you pay the big bucks for backup software like Backup Excec because they can backup database and locked files off of MS VSS versions...In most "normal" people's cases, however, we don't really have many locked files to worry about, so we use the freebie and manually shut off processes before backup.John
December 5th, 2009 5:50pm

Same problem here with Windows 7 Professional when copying one 300 MB file to a WebDAV storage. Seems to be an old MS bu^W feature.
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December 8th, 2009 6:24pm

I finally fixed the problem. I had the same error over and over again. In my case it was the security of my router. It was set to WPA-PSK. I disabled it and now it runs perfect... Greetz, Victor
January 6th, 2010 4:40pm

I finally fixed the problem. I had the same error over and over again. In my case it was the security of my router. It was set to WPA-PSK. I disabled it and now it runs perfect...Greetz,Victor I had almost tried everything until I did the same, changer my router from WPA-PSK to WEP. Transferred my large file without issue in seconds.Thanks dreads76!Al
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January 31st, 2010 2:48am

Hi All, i know this is an old topic, but i noticed it has still been kept alive and no real solution has been found.I cannot remember who but they were correct in saying youd get a better understanding if you disregard the word semaphore.It is a general timeout issue with data transfer.Now, for me, im trying, simply to access my external HDD, not transfer as such, but just browse. (still classed fundamentally as a data transfer of such due to caching and previewing) anyway, my explorer would hang for a period of time and my external HDD activity LED would blink corresponding to the duration of the hang.Now, im running chkdsk /r from command prompt on this drive, and after the few warnings of not being a windows drive etc...it proceeds.What was worrying however is an error message appeared (Popup windows standard error dialogue box) stating the system cannot read the drive, but gave 3 options.Try again, continue or cancel.Try again simply made the error re eappear, however continue proceeded and an error in cmd appeared, stating that a particular director was "entirely unreadable" and it actually removed this directory.It has not finished yet but i will post back with an update to let you all know if this fixes the issue where data transfer between machine and external HDD is concerned.Also note please, that the folder it removed, was created 2 days ago, and from the time of creating this folder was EXACTLY the point in time where i began having this issue.So the corrupted folder chkdsk has found may be the coulprit, will update as necessary so you can establish where your problems may lie.Also, id like to thank everyone for their input and help troubleshoot the issues, i signed up just to post this and help where i can as i was happy with the level of service and help from users such as myself.will not mention the disappointment caused by Microsoft's inability to provide not a solution, bot even an explanation to the "Semaphore timeout" message.
February 26th, 2010 1:57am

I was having the same problems for the longest time. My USB pen drives were useless to me as they kept timing out when I tried to copy large files. I read everything in this forum (and many others) but nothing helped. Until now. Hopefully this will help some others as well. One of the RSS feeds I subscribe to recommended a freeware from a company called Comodo. The program is a Registry Cleaner called 'Disk Cleaner' and you can get it here if interested. http://www.comodo.com/home/support-maintenance/system-cleaner.php It removes corrupt or unnecessary registry entries and not only made my pen drives functional again, my computer is speedier. It has a function called SAFEDELETE so you can decide if you want to restore and cancel the changes. SafeDelete™ lets Comodo System Cleaner clean as deeply as possible without fear of removing something vital to your PC’s performance This might not solve your problem but it certainly did mine. Good luck...samold
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March 1st, 2010 3:34am

The simple answer I discovered using the Export Data Wizard within MS Management Studio was to use the MS SQL Server Client 10.x protocol on the Vista Business 64 bit Client (Source Machine) and the MS SQL Server OLEDB Driver for the Remote (Destination Machine) connection to SQL 2K8 Enterprise. Apparently other connection modes were timing out on the largest of the 32 tables with about 50,000 rows due to default settings for various connection modes. Try it. It should help.
September 1st, 2010 3:37am

THE PROBLEM IS VERY SIMPLE, COMPUTERS ARE ____ BECAUSE MICROSOFT SUCKS. THE BEST SOLUTION TO ALL YOUR COMPUTER PROBLEMS IS TO FIND THE HIGHEST BUILDING AND THROW YOUR COMPUTER OFF. PROBLEM SOLVED. MICROSOFT SUCKS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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September 14th, 2010 1:41pm

My experience tells me that when someone starts a rant against the most innovative and productivity enhancing company in history it is usually because they can not comprehend the complexities of the technologies involved and are incapable of dealing with them.
September 14th, 2010 5:51pm

Whenever I try to copy large files over a wireless network (Laptop > Desktop) I get the following error:- Error 0x80070079: The semaphore timeout period has expired I've done a search on Google and have found that a number of other users are having the same problem, but no-one seems to have a fix for it. Can anyone help? (I'm running Vista Ultimate on both my Laptop & Desktop) I have the same problem. I'm running win7 trying to network to a share drive on winxp. Cannot find the windows 7 forum though. Must not have any issues with my operating system. Searching on this exact error message number in windows.com results in no hits. I got here by searching on the semaphore quote. The error message in win7 states to easily search on the exact error number. "An unexpected error is keeping you from copying the file. If you continue to receive this error, you can use the error code to search for help with this problem. Error 0x80070079: The semaphore timeout period has expired." Well I keep getting the error. Funny how computers keep doing the same thing over and over again. The network connection works as some files do copy over. Pushing files from winxp to win7 also errors out. I can't type in that error message though as it appears that continually telling win7 to try again froze my xp box. If I can't get my old files on my new laptop maybe I'll attempt to return it. KMS
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November 16th, 2010 9:19pm

I suspect a hardware issue somewhere, but the SD card problem resolved for me on a Dell when I used the hardware 'lock' on the card itself, making it read-only. The problem went away immediately. If I was worried about copying *to* the card, I'd dig deeper, but I'll let someone else work that out for now ;)
December 1st, 2010 5:06pm

I suspect a hardware issue somewhere, but the SD card problem resolved for me on a Dell when I used the hardware 'lock' on the card itself, making it read-only. The problem went away immediately. If I was worried about copying *to* the card, I'd dig deeper, but I'll let someone else work that out for now ;) I was experiencing Error 0x80070079 while trying to take photos from a SD card to my HDD. I could take other files (music, videos, etc), but nothing in my "pictures" folder. The SD card originally came from a BlackBerry, but I have never had this issue... I tried LloydFrombriz's way and it worked like a charm... I just can't "cut" items from my card... oh well at least I can copy! Thank you LloydFrombriz for the help!!
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December 8th, 2010 3:44am

Hi all, Im getting this error while copying 28GB .bak file from one server to another at different locations through XP_cmdshell. The semaphore timeout period has expired. 0 file(s) copied. Can anyone help with this?
December 14th, 2010 6:02pm

Apart from clicking on DineshPVM's post by mistake (sorry), I have also had similar problems. The dreaded "semaphore timeout" message appeared reasonably randomly during file backup operations (from XPsp3 32bit machine - 100Mb NIC to a Ubuntu 10.10 machine- 1Gb NIC). Also suffered from "network name not available" during these processes. A lot of googling didn't get me very far. The Ubuntu box is about 10 years older than the XPsp3 one, but is reliable in almost all other circumstances (its my Squeezebox music server as well as being the backup for most files). My linux skills just about got me to mii-tool to force the NIC configuration to slower speeds, but I still got the errors. Too many errors wound up leaving me with a ubuntu box with a dead network connection! In the end I seem to be transfering successfully now that I've replaced the rather tatty old network cable that I had been using (for the Ubuntu to network hub connection) with a better cable. Hey presto my problems seem to be solved. I see people having had problems with a miriad of connectivity modes (wifi, ethernet, usb, SATA), so all I can hope for is that one day someone will take a hard look at the error messaging and come up with something a little bit more helpful. *please*! Yes, the KB article does point the way, but how many people are really going to have the time to track down the root cause of their particular "semaphore timeout period has expired"? Meanwhile I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it does recure or crop up in another place...
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December 20th, 2010 5:30pm

This page helped me: http://8help.osu.edu/3253.html I have an Acer Aspire laptop and a QNAP NAS T-209 II. I got the semaphore error before I ran the command from the page and now it works fine.
December 29th, 2010 2:47pm

I am getting that same message but I'm not trying to copy over a network. Just clicking on the folder gets me that message and I can't access the folder or any of the files. I don't know what to do now.
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March 22nd, 2011 3:56pm

Hi, I've had the same issue with an SD flash-card. Many files could not be copied from the SD into hard disk, and even the files which are of moderate size (3Mb for example). I solved the problem by installing the card into card-reader instead of using laptop's built-in reader, and then plugging the external card-reader into USB port. It seems this problem is too complicated for Microsoft, and the only possible work around is to change hardware or drivers involved into the process. The size of data transfered, or a type of device do not matter - the error can occur anytime. I'm not sure about which versions of Windows are involved, but I saw the error under Windows 7 only.
March 28th, 2011 12:20am

I am also having this problem on a Windows 7 with service pack 1. I am trying to copy large picture files (500+) to my hard drive from memory card that is placed in the media slot? Have not been able to fix this issue. T
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May 2nd, 2011 12:41pm

I am also having this problem on a Windows 7 with service pack 1. I am trying to copy large picture files (500+) to my hard drive from memory card that is placed in the media slot? Have not been able to fix this issue. T
May 2nd, 2011 12:41pm

I am also having this problem on a Windows 7 with service pack 1. I am trying to copy large picture files (500+) to my hard drive from memory card that is placed in the media slot? Have not been able to fix this issue. T
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May 2nd, 2011 12:41pm

I am having the same problem...trying to copy media files of various sizes from my phone's microSD card put directly into my laptop's card reader and onto my hard drive. A couple files copied, but many are not and the ones that are, are transferring sooooo slow. I'm on an Asus with Windows 7 64 bit. Edit: Switching the card to read-only like LloydFrombritz said worked like a charm on one folder, but still problems going very slow and same error on others.
May 3rd, 2011 10:16pm

I am having the same problem...trying to copy media files of various sizes from my phone's microSD card put directly into my laptop's card reader and onto my hard drive. A couple files copied, but many are not and the ones that are, are transferring sooooo slow. I'm on an Asus with Windows 7 64 bit. Edit: Switching the card to read-only like LloydFrombritz said worked like a charm on one folder, but still problems going very slow and same error on others.
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May 3rd, 2011 10:16pm

I am having the same problem...trying to copy media files of various sizes from my phone's microSD card put directly into my laptop's card reader and onto my hard drive. A couple files copied, but many are not and the ones that are, are transferring sooooo slow. I'm on an Asus with Windows 7 64 bit. Edit: Switching the card to read-only like LloydFrombritz said worked like a charm on one folder, but still problems going very slow and same error on others.
May 3rd, 2011 10:16pm

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