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
    2018-06-20T19:22:13+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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  2. 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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  3. Anonymous
    2018-06-18T13:38:58+00:00

    Oh, sorry Jamin. I did not realize you had tried the work around of copying the tool to the flash drive and running it from there. Nor did I realize it had not worked for some. All the replies other than yours that showed up in my inbox since joining this thread seemed to indicate it worked universally.

    Steve

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-06-18T12:43:31+00:00

    JKrinsky,

    Why go to all that trouble when just copying the tool to the flash drive and running it from there fixes the problem.  That it is an effective work around has been established by a number of thread participants. Did you try it yet?

    Hi Steve,

    Yes, I did try that first (actually second or third). Looks like people are having mixed results with the basic fix, can't say how much of it is user error... Note that some people are having success using these other steps while NOT running the tool from the flash drive, so it's not just that silver bullet.

    My post was an attempt to combine nearly all of the "fixes" reported to work into one list, which is what I finally did in order to make this piece of doodoo work. I didn't have time to go through all permutations and figure out which ones were actually necessary in my case.

    Best regards,

    Jamin

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  5. Anonymous
    2018-06-18T02:51:11+00:00

    JKrinsky,

    Why go to all that trouble when just copying the tool to the flash drive and running it from there fixes the problem.  That it is an effective work around has been established by a number of thread participants. Did you try it yet?

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