Windows 10 Media Creation Tool Error: 0x80042405 - 0xA001A

Anonymous
2017-11-16T13:39:26+00:00

Greetings,

Recently, I have seen many people inquiring about this error regarding the Media Creation Tool. I myself got this error when I try to create a bootable USB drive (aka Create an Installable Media).

Here's what I tried:

Reformatting USB drive to FAT32

Deleting files

Tried to locate and run Setupprep.exe (I couldn't find this file in C:\$Windows.~BT\Sources or anywhere)

Change Startup Type of Update-Related Services (Startup Type: Manual -> Automatic)

Uninstalled and Reinstall Windows 10 Media Creation Tool

Made sure my USB is above 8Gb as instructed by the tool (it is 15Gb)

The Fix (for me at least):

1. Downloadthe Windows 10 Media Creation Tool directlyinto the USB drive that you want to use as a bootable device (meaning you download the Tool into the same USB you chose to use as an Installation Media). If you already downloaded the tool on your PC's Desktop, copy it into your USB.

2. Run the Tool directly from your USB, meaning you open File Explorer, locate the MediaCreationTool.exe in your USB and double-click to run it.

The installer should then create an Installation Media/Bootable USB.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,

Tom

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Install and upgrade

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-06-28T16:06:44+00:00

    Here is the solution that worked for me.

    1. Use the Media Creation tool to create an ISO file and save it on your desktop.
    2. Download the Microsoft Windows 7 USB/DVD tool.
    3. Plug in your flashdrive which is at least 8gb
    4. Open the Windows USB/DVD Tool and use it to create a bootable version of the ISO file on the USB drive.
    5. Restart the machine and go to the boot settings by pressing either F2 or F12 (machine dependent).
    6. Select the USB drive to boot from.

    I did this and was able to switch a laptop from using Windows 10 Enterprise to Windows 10 Pro.

    Here is a link on an article that was very helpful.

    https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-06-23T18:59:52+00:00

    Changing the usb format to NTFS worked for me

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-06-20T19:22:13+00:00

    The work-around seemed to work for me as well. Tried 2 times with 2 different usb sticks, got 2 failures. Then found this discussion. To me it seems that it fails when "Virtual Disk Service"  gets started ...noticed that in the Windows event logs at the time of the failure. Moving the tool to the usb stick and running from there, probably prevents "Virtual Disk Service" from doing the harm because there's an open exe file running from the usb stick. Just guessing, though.

    Well, right or wrong, your hypothesis is the first attempt at an explanation I have seen on this thread. Sounds reasonable to me. Thanks for the insight. At least it gives MS a place to start looking in order to fix this problem.

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-06-20T18:53:16+00:00

    The work-around seemed to work for me as well. Tried 2 times with 2 different usb sticks, got 2 failures. Then found this discussion. To me it seems that it fails when "Virtual Disk Service"  gets started ...noticed that in the Windows event logs at the time of the failure. Moving the tool to the usb stick and running from there, probably prevents "Virtual Disk Service" from doing the harm because there's an open exe file running from the usb stick. Just guessing, though.

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  5. Anonymous
    2018-06-20T02:49:15+00:00

    This works!

    I twice tried to create the Windows 10 installation on a USB (the Media Creation Tool download was stored on my hard drive) and twice it failed. I then copied the download to the USB, and the Windows 10 install created successfully!

    Thanks!

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