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
    2019-07-10T09:41:08+00:00

    The fix is to make sure you are using a USB 2.0 port, I also struggled with this tool. I figured I try 1 USB 2.0 port on my PC instead of the other USB 3.1 ports and it worked.

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-07-10T20:07:45+00:00

    Thanks for your reply.

    It looks like there is NO CONSISTENCY in the ways that the problem gets solved. 

    JelloZ,

    I just created the USB media installation using MediaCreationTool1903.exe and it worked fine on the first attempt.

    I usually prefer to download the windows.iso first and then build the USB stick or the DVD from it instead of downloading the whole thing every time.

    The MCT tool that MS had for windows 7 was much better because it allowed to build the USB or the DVD directly from an existing downloaded ISO file.

    With windows 10 MCT it looks like they went backward.

    There are a few different things to keep in mind depending on the environment (UEFI versus Legacy Bios)

    1. With Legacy Bios the USB media can be formatted either as NTFS or FAT32, but to be bootable the partition must be set Active.
    2. With UEFI the specs require the bootable device to be FAT32, but some older machines can still boot from a NTFS USB stick even if set to run in UEFI mode, the new UEFI only machines cannot boot from an NTFS USB stick.

    The USB media created by Windows 10 MCT is formatted as FAT32 and the partition is set Active  so that it can boot on both old Legacy Bios and UEFI machine.

    When the USB stick is formatted by Windows 10 the logical sector 0 is prepared with BOOTMGR.

    With much older version of windows it would have NTLDR instead of BOOTMGR.

    Some third party programs may still be using the old format with NTLDR and those will not be good for later version of Windows that use BOOTMGR.

    To manually create a Windows 10 bootable USB installer from the Win 10 windows.iso:

    1. On USB stick, create one single primary partition using MBR and format it with windows 10 as FAT32, make it Active. 

    (Win10 fat32 is limited to partitions up to 32GB)

    2)Make sure to set windows explorer to view all hidden files.

    1. Open the windows.iso file with windows explorer (It will be mounted as a virtual drive)
    2. Copy all files and folders from the mounted windows.iso to the USB stick.

    The resulting USB stick will be bootable on both UEFI and Legacy Bios environments.

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-07-13T20:17:21+00:00

    I have very limited knowledge of software so when I have an issue it's extremely hard to fix it.  I was also having this problem.  I just needed to put windows 10 on a flash drive so when all my PC parts arrive and I build a new PC, I can install windows on it.  I tried all the simple things people talked about.  Tried putting the installer on the flash drive, that wouldn't even run doing it that way.  I just kept trying to install it because you'd written you had to do it multiple times in the past.  It took about 15 attempts of trying just opening the down-loader tool thing and running it and installing to flash drive after I did a reformat.  I did this every time until it just finally worked.  **** is that all about?  Ugh...  Just glad it worked finally and hopefully I don't need to do anything windows related anytime soon... there's always some sort of error and not all of us are that knowledgeable with software.

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-07-13T21:22:32+00:00

    I agree that one has to try repeated times to get it to work.  Finally I got a copy of Win10 to reinstall after reformatting the hard drive, but apparently the hard drive was not completely reformatted.  Some of the stuff on the old format of the hard drive showed up after reformatting the hard drive.  Not certain how to get a clean reformat.

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