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

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.

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-01-10T18:39:35+00:00

    I think the error comes to the USB is NTF .

    but the correct way is FAT32, then only instal the boot

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-01-12T02:02:23+00:00

    NTFS vs FAT32 should not affect anything.

    The usual cause of this (other than a lack of administrator privileges) is some kind of security software that sees a program trying to write to a different drive in the manner that the Windows 10 Media Creator Tool does as malware (or a virus, what-have-you). The reason that copying the file directly to the drive and running it from that drive solves the problem in these situations is that it removes this suspicious cross-drive behavior. This is also the reason why many users report temporarily disabling their security software as a solution to the problem.

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-01-12T23:45:47+00:00

    I had same problem i was pre formatting the usb as fat32 (usb was 14gb) after formatting as ntfs worked 100% installing now thank you so much.

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-01-17T21:58:03+00:00

    Worked a treat.  Thank you.

    Jim

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  5. Anonymous
    2018-01-21T00:49:11+00:00

    Nice work Tom! No idea what made you think of trying that, but it worked great!

    Thank you!

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