Media Creation Tool Error 0x80042405 0xA001B

Anonymous

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??

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Answer accepted by question author

Kapil Arya 38,446 Volunteer Moderator

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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227 additional answers

Anonymous

2019-07-25T22:14:48+00:00

Erco60,

I think your question was not about the final level after the installation, but about the level of the installation media, those are 2 different things.

The latest installation media is build 18362.175, while the previous one was 18362.30.

The current windows build level after the latest updates 18362.239, regardless of what installation media level you used.

Also if you go to recovery mode command prompt it will reflect the same build level of the installation media that you use to install or upgrade.
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Anonymous

2019-07-26T02:35:42+00:00

That's good.

(1) But what did the DISM command say?

(2) I hope the Language, Architecture (64-bit/x64 or 32-bit/x86), & Edition (Home, Pro, etc.) is a match for all 23 computers. Here is a similar DISM command to show what Editions are on the stick...

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18362.239]

(c) 2019 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>DISM /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:E:\Sources\Install.esd

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool

Version: 10.0.18362.1

Details for image : E:\Sources\Install.esd

Index : 1

Name : Windows 10 Home

Description : Windows 10 Home

Size : 14,229,531,906 bytes

Index : 2

Name : Windows 10 Home N

Description : Windows 10 Home N

Size : 13,421,299,617 bytes

Index : 3

Name : Windows 10 Home Single Language

Description : Windows 10 Home Single Language

Size : 14,228,939,169 bytes

Index : 4

Name : Windows 10 Education

Description : Windows 10 Education

Size : 14,506,333,120 bytes

Index : 5

Name : Windows 10 Education N

Description : Windows 10 Education N

Size : 13,698,295,738 bytes

Index : 6

Name : Windows 10 Pro

Description : Windows 10 Pro

Size : 14,506,477,853 bytes

Index : 7

Name : Windows 10 Pro N

Description : Windows 10 Pro N

Size : 13,698,681,806 bytes

The operation completed successfully.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>
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Anonymous

2019-07-27T18:51:05+00:00

For the past couple of weeks, I too have been wracking my brains on this media creation tool error 0x80042405-0xA001B -- I even went as far as buying new USB flash drives thinking it was the security mechanism in SanDisk flash drives. This afternoon I downloaded a USB flash drive formatter and noticed the format failed because access to the drive was locked exclusively by a background process. Using process explorer as described in https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/windows-in-use.html , I was able to locate the mysterious process that had exclusive access to the flash drive, in my case was a shadow backup app. Once I closed the process, started the media creation tool and was successful. Performed the task two more times success. I hope this helps.

Robbieboi78,

Your explanation seems to be the only one that makes some sense in the whole thread.

I have used the Media Creation Tool 1903 several times and it always worked the first time for me on 5 different machines, so there must be something different causing the error 0x80042405-0xA001B, your case seems to be one that fits .

The MCT is supposed to prepare and format the USB device to be bootable in both UEFI or Legacy Bios environments.

For that reason it formats the device as FAT32 and prepares the logical boot sector with BOOTMGR before copying the files over.

There should be no need for using Rufus or any other third party programs.

The USB should be prepared for MBR and not GPT partition..

I guess the basic question still remains, what are all the possible causes for that error 0x80042405-0xA001B? Is there a Microsoft list with the meaning of the error codes in English ?
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Anonymous

2019-07-28T01:04:13+00:00

3 hours install time seems about right for most of my machines, many of which have fairly fast eMMC memory but slow Celeron processors. Then add another hour or so for post-1903 updates and multiple restarts to let everything settle/burn in properly. Sometimes it takes several updates and restarts just for Win10 to find & install the right display adapter driver. The machine boots very slowly until that gets sorted out.
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