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
    2017-12-28T15:35:06+00:00

    I don't see anyone from Microsoft on this thread.  How do we get their attention to this issue?  Is there another place to post where they live??  Microsoft are you here??

    Some have said create an ISO and use that.  If I'm in a bind might try that.  But what I really need is a bootable flash drive.  I keep one on hand to setup new machines and to do repairs and updates.

    This started for me when I wanted to update the version on my flash drive to the latest bits for 1709.  The one I had was a couple months old.

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  2. 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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  3. Anonymous
    2017-12-21T00:41:43+00:00

    Good work Thomas TKH - worked for me. Thanks!

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-12-28T15:17:54+00:00

    same here.. doesn't work for me... :((

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  5. Anonymous
    2018-01-09T22:34:23+00:00

    Copying the file to the usb drive didn't work for me.  And also formatting to ntfs didn't.

    What worked was to delete the usb partition and recreate it as mentioned in one of the comments here:

    "

    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.

    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.

    "

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