Media Creation Tool Error 0x80042405 0xA001B

Anonymous
2019-05-22T02:24:49+00:00

I must be doing something wrong because I always have the update fail with some BS error like this. What are the proper steps to run this tool?

I download the tool to the desktop. I'm on an Admin account. I insert a 16GB thumb drive. I format it. I start the tool. I point it to the thumb drive. During the phase where the files are copied to the USB, I get some stupid error like this:

Why are my steps not good enough? Where is the hole in my logic? Or is this tool just written poorly. I'd like to use stronger language here as I used to have to start it all over again and burn bandwidth trying this failed endeavor over and over.

I've heard people make it work by running the tool FROM the USB. Why would that matter? I've tried to write files to the thumb drive just after the format and before running the tool to make sure I have successful writes. Doesn't help. 

As a workaround today, I left the error up for a bit. Tried to access the thumb drive and it said it needed to be formatted AGAIN! So I did. Then I just opened the C:$Windows.~WS\Sources\Windows and copied the files to the drive by hand. Made the dang thing myself! WHO WRITES THIS STUFF??

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Install and upgrade

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Kapil Arya 38,446 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2019-10-23T10:23:40+00:00

Hello,

I would suggest you to create latest media. Download the Media Creation Tool using this link:

https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=691209

Hope this helps!

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-09-14T20:11:10+00:00

    I have been following this topic since I posted to it on July 8th, more than 2 months ago.

    It is obvious to me that this error "code" is a catch all for any and all failures that occur when making the MCT tool.

    It is too bad that microsoft won't acknowledge what the problem is or at least put out meaningful error codes.

    It only took them 25 years to get to a stable and useful release of Windows.  I am not looking for any meaningful progress on this problem.

    JelloZ, 

    Yes it is a catch all, you can get the same error message if you pull out the USB device before MCT tries to format it. It gets to 50% of the progress and then it tries to access the USB device which is no longer available.

    So anything that causes the USB device to become not accessible, after the selection at the beginning of the process,  will end up with the same error message when MCT tries to write to the device.

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-09-14T19:57:24+00:00

    Roy, 

    I just tried again on the Lenovo laptop, without power cable, just on batteries.

    The whole operation of download, verify and copy to the USB device took less than 20 Minutes without any error.

    This was with only the 64 Bit version. 

    I assume it may take twice as long if I download both 32 and 64 bit.

    Like you I don't want to waste my bandwidth on these tests, I already did this too many times without error.

    Again I cannot get this thing to fail. :(

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-09-14T19:42:23+00:00

    I have been following this topic since I posted to it on July 8th, more than 2 months ago.

    It is obvious to me that this error "code" is a catch all for any and all failures that occur when making the MCT tool.

    It is too bad that microsoft won't acknowledge what the problem is or at least put out meaningful error codes.

    It only took them 25 years to get to a stable and useful release of Windows.  I am not looking for any meaningful progress on this problem.

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-09-14T19:28:46+00:00

    Roy, 

    I didn't check the exact time, but probably longer than you because my internet is only 50Mb /sec.

    I also downloaded both 32 and 64 bits when you first mentioned it and never failed with that either.

    It is not just the download time, it takes time to prepare and verify the files too before going to format the USB device.

    I think the behavior is different based on the machine and the drivers of the USB hubs.

    What is the machine model and configuration that keeps failing for you ?

    I have 5 machines all with Win 10Pro x64 v 1903 at the latest level and none with this problem.

    1. Dell XPS 8300
    2. Dell XPS 8700
    3. MSI GT70-0NC
    4. Dell OptiPlex 380
    5. Lenovo Yoga 920.

    It is really stupid that Win 10 MCT repeats the download every time you want to create a USB media.

    The tool that they had for windows 7 had the option of creating it directly from a previously downloaded Windows.iso file.

    All they needed to do to make it compatible with UEFI was changing the format from NTFS to FAT32.

    That should be an easy option to add, but instead they made a new MCT for win 10 and it  is crappy.

    If you go to the windows download page

    https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

    there is a give feedback link.

    All the users experiencing the problem should put their comments there and try to get some action from MS.

    To me personally the Win10 MCT is just a big fiasco and a waste of time.

    I just used it several times trying to reproduce your bug, but I cannot make it fail with my machines.

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