Windows 10 Won't Boot, and I can't get the Media Creation Tool onto a USB drive

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Community.

The USB drive should be formatted and empty, then you can create the medic creation tool as below and check if it helps.

You may use the below Windows 10 ISO link to download the tool and check create the installation media.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

1. Run the media creation tool.
2. Select Create installation media for another PC.
3. Choose the language, edition, and architecture (64-bit or 32-bit) for Windows 10.
4. Follow the steps to create the installation media, and then select Finish when it’s done.
5. When you’re ready to perform a clean installation, turn on your PC, insert the DVD or USB flash drive you created, and then shut down your PC.
6. Restart your PC, and then press any key to boot from the DVD or USB flash drive.

Hope this information is helpful and do let us know if you need further assistance. We will be glad to assist.

What a totally pointless response. Telling the guy to do what he is already trying to do. I have the exact same issue.

At step 4 in your reply it cannot create the installation media because "we can't find a USB flash drive".

Oddly the drive is present, formatted and empty but this utility refuses to see it thus rendering it useless.

Hi Tom,

 

The above issue might occur due to USB device not recognized by the installed BIOS on the computer.

 

Change your computer's boot sequence and check if the issue is resolved. To do this, you must change the computer's setup and the option that controls which device your computer uses to start from. Make sure that you select a device that has boot files (or operating system files) installed.

 

Contact the BIOS manufacturer to guide you appropriately in updating, modifying or making any changes in BIOS to prevent any incorrect settings which might result in an unresponsive computer.

 

Disclaimer: Modifying BIOS/complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) settings incorrectly can cause serious problems that may prevent your computer from booting properly. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the configuring of BIOS/CMOS settings can be solved. Modifications of the settings are at your own risk. 

 

Write to us with the status of the above issue for further assistance. Your reply is most important for us to ensure we assist you accordingly.

 

Thank you.

 

What are you on about?

I don't have an unresponsive computer. I am trying to use the MS utility to download the Windows 10 ISO to a USB flash drive which is legitimately recognised by my computer so that I can resurrect a corrupted desktop PC. It is not a fault with the working computer setup.

The problem is that the supplied utility, and you can check this out with a simple search on the internet, regularly does  not recognise USB flash memory sticks of a variety of different makes and models. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the sort of mumbo jumbo about BIOS and CMOS you have responded with. It is a problem with the supplied utility which cannot recognise a USB stick that the Windows 10 OS of the machine it has downloaded to for the purposes of creating a DVD can see perfectly well. 

You are completely missing the point. One cannot even get the OS on the flash drive to try in the broken PC. Which bit of "the Windows 10 ISO utility doesn't work with a USB stick" is hard to understand? You can check out the frequency of that statement by searching it on google.

I suggest you read the whole post not just the one from LV. You are continually telling me to address a problem I don't have and have not described here and you are trotting out nonsense.

I am more than familiar with "this process" whereas in your  arrogant assumption I am an idiot, you clearly have no clue what I am talking about despite two efforts and now a third, to describe it.

Why would I go into the bios to boot from USB on a machine that isn't broken?

I am using the "Media Creation Tool" on a perfectly working machine. When selecting the ISO to USB it does not work as it fails on "we can't find a USB flash drive". (see above)

That message is not because I am trying to boot from it, it is when I am trying to download to it using the Media Creation Tool. Stop telling me to "go into your BIOS" like I am some sort of numpty. There is nothing wrong with my BIOS and the windows 10 PC I am trying to download the ISO on to from the MS site (NOT the corrupt PC I am trying to rescue) recognises the USB stick no problem. Only the Media creation tool fails to see the USB stick at step 4 in the original response "create installation media". It simply will not as it fails on "we can't find a USB flash drive". (see above) .

Check the internet, there are loads of complaints of a similar nature. Are they all halfwits who don't know they should simply go into their BIOS? Ridiculous.

I suggest you read the whole post not just the one from LV. You are continually telling me to address a problem I don't have and have not described here and you are trotting out nonsense.

I am more than familiar with "this process" whereas in your  arrogant assumption I am an idiot, you clearly have no clue what I am talking about despite two efforts and now a third, to describe it.

Why would I go into the bios to boot from USB on a machine that isn't broken?

I am using the "Media Creation Tool" on a perfectly working machine. When selecting the ISO to USB it does not work as it fails on "we can't find a USB flash drive". (see above)

That message is not because I am trying to boot from it, it is when I am trying to download to it using the Media Creation Tool. Stop telling me to "go into your BIOS" like I am some sort of numpty. There is nothing wrong with my BIOS and the windows 10 PC I am trying to download the ISO on to from the MS site (NOT the corrupt PC I am trying to rescue) recognises the USB stick no problem. Only the Media creation tool fails to see the USB stick at step 4 in the original response "create installation media". It simply will not as it fails on "we can't find a USB flash drive". (see above) .

Check the internet, there are loads of complaints of a similar nature. Are they all halfwits who don't know they should simply go into their BIOS? Ridiculous.

Tom, did you ever find a solution to your problem - which is my problem and evidently the problem of thousands of other people.  Need to restore a computer that crashed, but can't get Windows 10 onto USB and do not have a disk that will hold that large of a file.

thanks

AnnWeaver,

All my research came up with is "try different brands of USB stick and you might hit on one that works" but don't hold your breath!

In the end I downloaded to DVD via my laptop,(the ISO file does fit on one DVD) and restored my system using it. Things are still getting back to normal now with s/w to restore and backups that don't work. Tchoh!

Good luck.

Download the ISO  to your computer and use Rufus to format it to your USB. Check your BIOS to boot from USB even if your USB stick is not showing in windows.   

OctavianZA,

Sadly, any credibility in your reply is made redundant by your second sentence. The issue here is not that the machine with perfectly working Windows10 can't see the USB stick. Rather it is the MS "media creation tool" that cannot see it. (Read messages ad nauseam above).

"Check to boot from BIOS" is no problem on the machine I am trying to recover but yet again you have missed the point that the "media creation tool" never let's one create the media to get that far.

How would a PC with no OS on it (the whole reason for this farrago) "boot from USB even if your USB stick is not showing in windows". There are two computers here one works fine, the other needs to recover the OS and it has no windows on it, you get it?

From your reply, I doubt that you do.

Only Tom (see reply below) and others having this problem comprehend what the problem is.  Rufus does not help the situtation and I know how to set a BIOS to boot from a USB.   BOOTING DOES NOT MATTER, IF YOU CAN NOT GET THE  ISO ONTO A USB.  You don't understand the problem.