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
    2019-06-29T08:29:39+00:00

    Took me a few tries (and formats), but I finally managed:

    Quick format USB drive NTFS.

    Put 'MediaCreationTool1903' onto USB drive.

    Right-click and 'Run as Administrator'.

    Installation media for another PC...

    Architecture BOTH (x32 and x64)

    When the File Explorer window on my USB closed, I pulled it back up and left it selected for the entire duration thereafter.

    Nothing else I tried, several times, worked. It finally did and the aforementioned is how (I did NOT delete the temporary files, '$Windows.~BT' and '$Windows.~WS' generated in C:\ and nor did I screw around with Diskpart as I see suggested ad nauseam for this problem).

    Using a 8GB PNY flash drive (and used my chassis front USB 3.0 port), which I'd already used for this back in 2016.

    Hopefully this helps somebody. My error was also 0x80042405 - 0xA001B.

    The only right way to fix error. You are my hero. Thanks for this, i love it!!!

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-06-30T03:31:15+00:00

    I had this same problem on my PC (media creation tool error 0x80042405 0xA001B).  After running several times, I noticed the media creation tool was using temporary space on my local drive before it actually started writing to the USB drive.   As it was doing that, my local disk free space would drop below 32GB and the media creation tool would throw the error.  I cleaned up more space on my local hard drive (50 GB) and the media creation tool ran successfully (writing to a 16 GB USB memory stick).

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-07-02T09:22:15+00:00

    Just ran into this error while trying to create an x64 installation USB, tried 3 times, the third time running the tool as an administrator, and each time it would fail.  Fourth try was the charm, after I moved the installation tool onto the freshly formatted thumb drive.

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-07-02T13:28:37+00:00

    I too have had running as Admin not help. Thanks for sharing your experience on this. Curious, did you run the tool as Administrator from the thumb drive as well or not?

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