Finally got it to work. Not sure what was different that solved the problem. Last time was with a freshly formatted NTFS flash drive and on a machine that had no 3rd party malware or virus protection.
Happy New Year!
Windows 10 Media Creation Tool Error: 0x80042405 - 0xA001A
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Anonymous
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
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
322 answers
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Anonymous
2018-01-02T01:31:50+00:00 -
Anonymous
2018-01-02T01:00:37+00:00 Copying the Media Creation Tool to the USB drive worked for me but I was curious to try a few things.
It appears that running the Simple Volume Wizard fixes the problem without having to copy the Media Creation Tool to the USB drive.
This can be accessed in Computer Management > Disk Management.
Right click on the USB drive in the lower (graphical) part of the window and select Delete Volume.
Click Yes to the warning. If there are any volumes remaining, delete those also.
The entire USB drive should now show as Unallocated.
Right click on it again and select New Simple Volume. (You may have to perform this step twice as it sometimes does nothing).
Click through all the windows in the wizard using the default settings, selecting NTFS as the file system.
A new volume will be created.
Now run the Media Creation Tool without copying it to the USB drive.
Hope this helps.
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Anonymous
2018-01-01T00:08:45+00:00 Logged in just to confirm that moving the creation tool to the target USB drive was a workable solution, at least in my situation.
(Totally against all logic, but hey, if it works)
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Anonymous
2017-12-31T07:31:54+00:00 I had also that Media Creation Tool Error: 0x80042405 - 0xA001A.
What helped was deactivating the virus scanner (I use McAfee), even without copying the tool to the usb stick.
Christian
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Anonymous
2017-12-30T21:24:29+00:00 For me, it was just the opposite. Formatting a new usb (I tried a 16GB and a 32GB) using FAT32 **did not work.**However, when I formatted the usb drive NTSF it worked flawlessly. I was able to boot my crashing pc from the usb drive and reinstall windows 10.
Seems too easy, but I hope it helps some.