Windows 10: Is the Media Creation Tool safe for USB drives/SD cards?

TL;DR: After my SD card got pretty much bricked after using the tool, I'm wondering whether anyone else has experienced the same thing and if it's OK for me to use a different card.

I've been using the Media Creation Tool for a long time now and haven't had any major issues. That was the case until now.

Earlier this year I went ahead and installed 1909 on a 16 GB SD card (something I do quite often). Then a few days ago I tried to put 2004 on the thing. Opened the tool, opted to create a bootable USB. The card did not show up (tried both the SD card slot and a card reader). Opened File Explorer and tried to format the card, when it said the card was write-protected.



The write-protection error (in Vietnamese).

No problem, I thought. I used DiskPart to clear the attribute, and while it said it was successful, nothing actually changed. Tried to clean the drive, and it gave me an I/O device error.



What I/O error? Last time I tried it worked fine...

Following some guides online, I tried the SD Card Formatter and Rufus. Both failed and either crashed the PC or gave an error similar to the one above. Used another PC, still no progress.



Similar error in Rufus.

The card still reads fine, though not being able to revert it back to a normal card is really annoying.

At this point, I'm ready to use a different drive, though I can't help but wonder if I will get the same issues with that drive.

Has anyone experienced anything similar and did you manage to fix it?

submitted by /u/khanhtranbeta06
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:)

 

media creation tool

Whats the size of the USB stick?

The thumb drive might be too space, you need at least an 8 GB thumb drive; especially if you are downloading multiple editions (Home, Pro) and architectures (32, 64 bit).

You can try downloading the ISO file directly, then create a bootable copy using Rufus:

Step 1: Download Windows 10 ISO Files Directly Using Your Web Browser

Step 2:

• How
  to Prepare Bootable Install Media for Windows 10 - DVD, USB or SD Card

 

Failed Media Creation Tool attempt at bootable USB flash drive

Shawn, these are the steps being referred to that NavyLCDR posted. They work for both UEFI and MBR.

Here are the steps to create a standard Windows 10 USB flash drive:

1. Use the Media Creation Tool to download and save the ISO file to your hard drive.
2. Insert the USB flash drive.
3. Open a Administrator Command Prompt and enter: diskpart (if it isn't an administrator command prompt, it will ask for administrator permission).
4. list disk
5. select disk # <- replace # with the actual disk number of the USB flash drive
6. clean <- this will erase the disk selected above, make sure you selected the USB flash drive!
7. create part pri
8. format fs=fat32 quick
9. active
10. exit
11. exit - and if the first Command Prompt was not an Administrator Command Prompt, exit that one too.
11. Mount the ISO file saved by the Media Creation Tool. If you are using Windows 8 or 10, you only have to right click on it and click on mount. If you are using Windows 7, then you must use a program like WinCDEmu to mount the ISO file:
WinCDEmu - the easiest way to mount an ISO. And more...
12. Copy all the files and folders from the mounted ISO file to the USB flash drive.

That's as simple as it gets. Between steps 7 and 8 you can enter: "select part 1" without quotes - but it should not be necessary.
Between steps 8 and 9 you can enter: "assign" without quotes - but it should not be necessary.

 

Media Creation Tool question

Thanks Cerberus but Ive no problem downloading the Iso with the media creation tool. I don't think its the ISO that is the problem' I think the problem is when the Media Creation Tool is creating the bootable USB flash drive. So I think I can use the Media Creation Tool for that part...and as you say try something like Rufus to create the bootable USB flash drive

I still have this question though "The tutorial here says after going to the Microsoft site and selecting the Download Tool (Media Creation Tool) option that the Media Creation Tool should be save to the PC and run from there.
On Microsoft site the instructions are to Download the Tool and select Run (no saving to the PC). Is there a reason for saving it to the PC first as suggested on Tenforums?"

I was curious to see if others had encountered the issue I had with the Media Creation Tool. Ive never had a problem using it before