Media Creation Tool Error 0x80042405 - 0xa001b: How to Fix

If you’ve ever upgraded your Windows PC or made a bootable USB drive to install Windows 10 v1903 on another PC, then you know what Media Creation Tool is and what it does.

Although this is a very useful tool and can help you a lot in certain situations, in some cases it causes more problems than it solves.

That’s the case with the 0x80042405 – 0xA001B error code which appears when you want to create a bootable USB drive with Windows 10 v1903 update.

Here’s how one user describes it:

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 [..] error like this:

This is a pretty common error and many Windows 10 users are getting frustrated by it.

Can I solve the 0x80042405 – 0xA001B error easily?

There are a few solutions to get past the 0x80042405 – 0xA001B error. Firstly, you should learn how to fix Windows 10 Media Creation Tool by resetting the program as demonstrated there.

Another efficient and time-saving resolution for Media Creation Tool not working is to run your file with administrator rights and remove any usage restrictions.

Hence, try our solutions and see if any of them work. If the issue is still present, there are a couple of other things we covered in this foolproof guide.

How do I fix error code 0x80070005 0xa001b?

1. Configure the USB drive as NTFS

1. Connect the USB device to your computer.
2. Go to the Start search bar and type This PC.
   
3. Now, right-click on the USB Drive partition and select Format.
   
4. In this tab, go to the File system tab and change to NTFS format.
   
5. Click the Start button to proceed. (Be aware that formatting will erase all the USB data)

This helpful guide can prevent you get Media Creation Tool bugs that involve errors like 0x80070005 0xa001b.

2. Use Diskpart

1. In the Windows search box, type cmd and right-click the first result Run as administrator.
   
2. Run the Diskpart command then type list disk. Write down or remember the number of your USB drive (for example, we’ll use Disk 1).
   
3. Now type these commands one by one:

select disk 1 <enter>

clean<enter>

convert MBR <enter>

create partition primary <enter>

format fs=fat32 quick <enter>

active<enter>

assign<enter>

After doing this, your USB drive with the Windows 10 v1903 should work just fine and the 0x80042405 – 0xA001B error in Media Creation tool should be gone.

If you have any other questions or maybe an alternative solution, don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments section below.