Windows 10: Windows Media Creation Tool Bricked Drive

I wanted to install Windows 11 on a new PC. I bought a new USB drive and downloaded Microsoft's Media Creation Tool to create installation media on it. The media creation tool errored out partway through the process. File explorer shows that there is some win11-related stuff on the USB drive, but it is not bootable and is now stuck in read-only mode. I cannot reformat it with diskpart or other third-party tools. The USB drive has no physical switch on it that puts it into read-only mode.What I need is eithera a way to rescue my drive and take my chances with Microsoft's broken tool again O

:)

 

Media creation tool

Hi,

We would like to know more about this concern. Kindly answer the following:

• Any changes made on the computer prior to this concern?
• Is this the first time that you encountered this problem?
• What troubleshooting steps have you tried so far?
• May we know the reason why you want to download Media Creation Tool?

 

Windows Media Creation Tool Error 0x80070079-0xA001A

Your USB thumb drive needs to be at least 8 GBs.

The error code 0x80070079-0xA001A means that the tool doesn't have permission for it to run. For us to assist you, we suggest that you
follow the simple steps listed below:

• 
  Right-click on the Media Creation Tool.exe.
  
• 
  Press Properties.
  
• 
  Click on General.
  
• 
  At the bottom, click on Unblock.
  
• 
  Press Apply, and then OK.
  

Let us know how it goes and if you need further assistance, feel free to post back.



You can also download the ISO first using the Media Creation Tool, then create a bootable copy. Yes, you can use it to perform clean install.

If Windows 10 was already installed and activated on your system, just proceed to perform a direct clean install as described in the following articles.

Step 1: How
to download official Windows 10 ISO files

Step 2:

• How to: Perform a clean install of Windows 10

 

Media Creation Tool Won't Download ISO

Hi,

Thank you for being a part of Windows 10.

What is the exact and complete error you get when you try to create Media creation tool?

I would suggest you to try the steps from the following link to create Media creation tool.

Installing Windows 10 using the media creation tool

Download Windows 10

Hope this helps. Let us know if you have any other issues with Windows in future.