Best Solutions to the Semaphore Timeout Period has Expired Issue

Different Situations of the Semaphore Timeout Period has Expired Issue

Many of you may don’t know what the semaphore timeout period has expired Windows 10 issue is. But, it is possible to encounter this issue sometimes in various situations as follows:

Case 1: The Semaphore Timeout Period has Expired Hard Drive/USB Drive

Sometimes, when you want to open an external hard drive or flash drive which is connected to your computer via USB, you can’t access it but only receive this error message.

In some cases, you can’t open the file on the USB drive but only see this error.

This is an annoying issue especially when you need to use the external hard drive/USB flash drive or the files on it immediately.

Today, we will show 7 situations where we may encounter the ‘location is not available’ error as well as corresponding solutions. For more details, read this post.

Case 2: The Semaphore Timeout Period has Expired Copying Files

This issue always happens when you want to copy a large file over a network. And perhaps, you will get Error 0x80070079: The semaphore timeout period has expired message.

You may use the error code to search for solutions to this problem. Then, the search result leads you to here.

Error Copying File or Folder Unspecified Error [SOLVED]

Are you facing error copying file or folder unspecified error? Do you know how to handle this error? Now, you can read this post to get some solutions.

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Case 3: Backup Failed: the Semaphore Timeout Period has Expired

When you use the Windows built-in tool to create a system image, the backup process may be interrupted by this issue. And you will get additional information as the semaphore timeout period has expired (0x80070079).

These are three common situations of the semaphore timeout period has expired Windows 10 issue. If you happen to be bothered by this issue, do you know how to get rid of it? In the following content, we will show you several available solutions.

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Solution 1: Use CHKDSK to Check and Repair Bad Sectors & Disk Errors

Bad sectors or disk errors on the drive can lead to the semaphore timeout period has expired issue. Thus, you can try CHKDSK to check and then shield the bad sectors or fix the disk errors.

1. Go to Start > Search.
2. Type cmd into the search box, right-click the first result and choose Run as administrator to open Command Prompt
3. Type in chkdsk *: /f /r and press Enter. Here, * stands for the target drive letter.

When this process ends, CHKDSK will automatically fix the found errors or shield the discoverable bad sectors.

Then, you can go to see if the semaphore timeout period has expired Windows 10 issue disappears. If not, please try solution 2.

Solution 2: Run System File Checker to Repair Missing or Corrupted System Files

Some users reflect that they solve the issue by using the System File Checker tool. Thus, you can also try this way.

1. Open Command Prompt.

2. If you are using Windows 10/8.1/8, please input the following command line and press Enter:

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

If you are using Windows 7/Vista, please skip to the next step.

3. Input sfc /scannow and press Enter.

At last, go to see whether this solution can solve your issue successfully.

Solution 3: Temporarily Disable Antivirus and Firewall

When you transfer a certain file, the transfer process can be blocked by antivirus software or Windows Firewall and you will receive the semaphore timeout period has expired 0x80070079 error message.

Thus, you can disable antivirus and Windows Firewall to have a try.

1. Type control panel into the search box and choose the first result.

2. Search for Windows Firewall in the search box and enter it.

3. Choose Turn Windows Firewall on or off from the left list.

4. Check the two options of Turn off Windows Firewall.

5. Click OK.

Next, you also need to disable any third-party antivirus software manually.

If this method still can’t help you out. Use the next method to have a try.

Solution 4: Update Wireless network adapters

To do this job, please follow these steps:

1. Type Device Manager into the search box and choose the first search result.

2. Unfold Network adapters and right-click on the related adapter. Then choose Update Driver Software.

3. Choose Search automatically for updated driver software.

4. Wait patiently until the update process ends.

Solution 5: Do a Clean Boot

In Clean Boot State, you will be able to diagnose and troubleshoot some advanced Windows problems. This Microsoft official post will show you the detailed steps about this work: How to perform a clean boot in Windows.

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Solution 6: Convert FAT32 to NTFS

You know that when you need to transfer a file which is larger than 4GB, the destination drive should be NTFS. Or else, you will receive the file is too large for destination file system or the semaphore timeout period has expired issue.

This issue always happens when you copy a large file to external USB drives, like USB flash drives, memory cards, SD cards, and more because they are using FAT32 by default.

So, go to see whether the destination drive is using FAT32. If yes, please first convert FAT32 to NTFS.

If you use the Windows built-in tool to do this job, you need to format the drive to NTFS and of course, it will format all files on the drive. However, if you choose to use this partition manager – MiniTool Partition Wizard, you can do this job without data loss.

Convert FAT to NTFS is a free feature of this software. Press the following button to get MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition to have a try. Remember, it will not delete any data on the drive.

MiniTool Partition Wizard FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

1. Connect the USB drive to your computer and open the software.

2. Click Launch Application.

3. Right-click on the target USB drive and choose Convert FAT to NTFS.

4. Click Start to start the converting process.

5. When the process ends, press Close to go back to the main interface.

6. Exit the software.

After this conversation, you can go to see whether you can transfer the large file successfully.

Solution 7: Create a System Image with Third-party Software

When referring to creating a system image, you can try this professional backup software – MiniTool ShadowMaker.

This software can be used to back up Windows system, files & folders, disks and partitions on the computer.

To use it as an alternative tool to create a system image, you can refer to this article:

Easily & Free Create a Windows 10 Image Backup Now – MiniTool

Solution 8: Recover Files from the Inaccessible Drive and Format It to Normal

In most cases, the above relevant solutions can fix the inaccessible drive with the semaphore timeout period has expired issue. However, if you still can’t enter the drive, to make the drive be back to normal, you will need to format it.

If there are some important files on the drive, you should use MiniTool Power Data Recovery, a piece of free data recovery software, to first recover your important files.

If you don’t care about the data on the drive, you can skip to move 2 to format the drive directly.

Move 1: Recover Data from the Drive

With MiniTool Power Data Recovery, you can recover various types of files from your computer hard drives, USB flash drives, memory cards, SD cards, etc.

Most of all, you can first use the Trial Edition of this software to see whether it can find the data you want to restore. Press the following button to get this freeware.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

In the following guide, we will walk you through the steps to retrieve files from an inaccessible USB flash drive. If you want to retrieve files from other types of drives, the operation is similar.

1. Connect the USB drive to your computer and open the software.

2. To recover files from the USB drive, you need to switch to the Removable Disk Drive

3. The target USB drive will be displayed on the software automatically. If not, press the Refresh button to make the software recognize it.

4. Choose the target USB drive and click on Scan.

5. When the scanning process ends, you will see its scan results with both the deleted and existing files on the drive.

6. The scanned files are listed by path. You can open each path to find the files you want to recover.

7. You can also use the Type feature to find your needed files by type and the Find feature to locate the needed files directly according to their names.

8. Preview files to confirm whether they are the files you want to recover.

This software allows you to preview multiple types of files. For example, if you want to preview a PDF file, please just choose it and click the Preview button from the right section of this software to preview it. Besides, you can also scroll the mouse wheel to zoom in and out.

9. Save your needed files to a suitable path.

Here, you can’t use MiniTool Power Data Recovery Trial Edition to recover your files finally. However, after updating to an advanced edition, you can check your needed files and click on the Save button to keep the files to your specified location.

Now, all the needed files are recovered to a safe place. Next, you can format the drive to make it work normally again.

Move 2: Format the Drive to Normal

Format Partition is a free function of MiniTool Partition Wizard, and you can use it to format your USB drive to the normal state.

MiniTool Partition Wizard FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

1. Open the software and choose Launch Application to enter the software’s main interface.

2. Right-click on the target partition and choose the Format

3. Define the Partition Label, File System and Cluster Size according to your needs.

4. Press OK to go back to the software’s main interface.

5. Press Apply to execute the format process and keep the change.

After formatting the drive, you can use it normally if there is no other problem.

Bottom Line

Want to get rid of the semaphore timeout period has expired issue? You can just try the solutions mentioned in this post one by one to help you out.

Should you have any questions when dealing with this issue or problems related to this MiniTool data recovery software, please feel free to contact us via [email protected] or let us know in the comments. You can also share your suggestions here.

The Semaphore Timeout Period has Expired FAQ