I'm trying to copy some content from one old HDD external USB-3 drive to a newer NVMe SSD external USB-C drive.

I keep getting this error when trying to copy some things that blocks the transfer, meaning I have to go copy things file by file almost to avoid this issue.

Anyone know what it relates to or how to fix or avoid this?!?!

 

Googleling the error code brought me to this, maybe some of the suggestions help:
https://www.makeuseof.com/semaphore-timeout-period-expired-0x80070079/

 

Try fastcopy, it will copy without Interruption and maybe only give an error for one or two files.
It is my favorite most used app!

 

Sector error on your harddisk or corrupted file.
In both cases you may not be able to recover the file.

3rd option : read error, in this case it may be recoverable ...

Try to copy the file with *all* other background program closed -> if the harddisk need to access to several data at the same time read errors may occur.

In your particular case, I suppose it's a sector failure on you "old" hdd.

 

The new drive is a brand new drive (Western Digital Black NVMe 4TB) and the enclosure is a bran new enclosure, and showing no sector errors or issues.

The old drive is a Seagate 4TB HDD external 2.5" drive, but also shows no sector errors or issues.

The files giving this error are always the same too, but as they as samples I have tested and they can be read, imported, and used in things like DAW, Loopcloud app, and so on, so the file doesn't appear to be corrupted.

It's just a bit strange and none of the suggested issues I have found seem to apply and none of the suggested fixes seem to fix the issue.

I also tried FastCopy, and it sticks on the same file and the remaining time just continues to increase as it throws up the same semaphore error.

 

Last edited: Nov 23, 2023

"no error" on 4TB harddisk is returned by Windows build-in tool (error-checker) in a few minutes, but it's not trustable.
Only a full sector-to-sector test will return a valuable info, this test could take up to a few hours with a 4TB harddisk.

if the sample can be read by DAW, then save you project including sample to your new SSD and the sample will be transfered from hhd to ssd thanks to your daw save function.

 

I've used HDDregenerator to revive bad sectors long enough to copy data to new drive.
its around 80$ but well worth it.
https://hdd-regenerator.en.softonic.com/

this is a "demo" version, it will read the drive and tell you where the errors are but won't repair them.
once you register the program with the author and receive a serial number, it will convert program to full version and
you can immediately use it.

here's authors website if you just want to buy directly or download demo there.

http://www.dposoft.net/

on other trick that often works is to put bad drive in freezer for an hour or so before beginning work on it.
its worked for me several times.

 

Try change the USB cable of the old drive to a new one, sometimes the cable causing this. Also try change the USB port to another

 

• Update your device drivers. Outdated or corrupted device drivers can cause communication problems.
• Run the System File Checker (SFC) tool. This tool can scan your system for corrupted files and fix them.
• Convert FAT32 to NTFS https://recoverit.wondershare.com/partition-management/fat32-to-ntfs-without-losing-data.html
• Reformat the drive. If the error is occurring with an external drive, you may need to reformat the drive to NTFS.

 

I ordered a 100W USB C cable from Amazon with same day Prime delivery. Just arrived and it all now seems to be working, so despite having previously tried 4 different USB-C cables, 2 of which were one that came with the external NVMe enclosures, it appears they may be requiring too much power the original cables cannot delivery perhaps?!

Interesting solution that I would not have stumbled across apart from the fact I ordered the cable to use as a fast charger for my phone and thought it was worth a try on the off chance!

.....all the above is unless it just coincidentally happens to be working for now for some reason obviously

 

Fastcopy is very good, but it's 48 dollars for 1 license...