Which USB flash drives work best when using Media Creation Tool?

Caledon Ken said:

Hi sportsfan148

I remembered this thread and alphanumeric's explanation.

Can't create Windows 10 Installation Media. Any ideas?

It doesn't appear that all SanDisks have this trait. Myself I would start the tool and try on a Windows 10 machine.

Thanks for that thread. The Media Creation Tool has created the USB flash drive bootable media without any errors. I haven't got around to trying to install Windows 10 using it yet though. After reading that thread though it brings up another question. After formatting the flash drive to ensure it was empty before using the Media Creation Tool. I noticed the flash drive showed in This PC/My computer as a local disc (the same icon as my C: drive). Thinking there might be something wrong with the drive I immediately ran Checkdisk on it to see if the drive had errors. It didn't. When I looked at the flash drive icon in This PC again it had immediately changed to what looks like a blue PC screen with a forward pointing green arrow. Is that a Windows 10 removable drive icon? When I opened disc management the USB flash drive is listed in there as a removable drive

sportsfan148 said:

Did you use the Sandisk Extreme Pro without Rufus? By that I mean did you create your Bootable USB flash drive using the Media Creation Tool method?

I used the SanDisk, then the Rufus and the Tool to create the boot.

WOT said:

If the media creation software and/or rufus recognized the drive and completed the operation, it will most likely work.

The easiest way to finalize your concern is to just test it and see.

Just try to boot to it and when you get to "install windows" just exit.

IMHO, it is better to try it now to know for sure.

I tested it but only as far as rebooting , tapping f12 and the Sandisk USB flash drive was visible there in the boot menu..but that's as far as I went

sportsfan148 said:

I wonder what theyre talking about then when they say there are issues with Sandisk USB flash drives when creating Windows Installation Media with the Media Creation Tool. They talk about the drives not being recognised by the Media Creation Tool or the system Reserved Partition not being created?

No clue, I've never had a problem.

I downloaded the MCT this afternoon and used it to create the bootable Creator's Upgrade USB drive on an 8GB PNY Thumb drive, got Version 1703 Build 15063.0 dated March 17, 2017, and it booted just fine. The Thumb drive is formatted as FAT32.

sportsfan148 said:

Hi Ed, Yeah those are the tutorials I always use. I followed that tutorial for the Rufus method I used last time.
Ive used the tutorials again this time as I want to use solely the Windows Media Creation Tool to create my bootable USB flash drive (without using Rufus at all). Do you use the Windows Media Creation Tool to create your bootable USB flash drive? I just wanted to try this method this time and cut out Third Party Rufus if I can. I know the Diskpart method is another way too..Ive also used that in the past

I just use any old handy 8 GiG USB key and the media creation the last one was build 15063 now have updated to 16199.1000

Lexar is my memory card & USB thumb drive of choice. However, I have this brand along with PNY, Kingston & one odd Maxell drive. The only issues I've ever had during installs was while using a cheap no-name unbranded variety. Personally I've never used the Rufus tool though.