Fix: “Something Happened Error 0xC1800103 – 0x90002”

One of the best tools in Microsoft’s arsenal, the Media Creation Tool is an amazing utility which lets you upgrade your computer to Windows 10, or create an installation media for Windows such as a USB or a DVD which you can use for another device. However, this tool has a few quirks and bugs, such as the 0xc1800103 – 0x900002 error, whose real culprit may vary from device to device.

This error appears when you’re upgrading to Windows 10, and the ISO is almost completely downloaded, or it’s downloaded but verifying, and when it happens, all the time and data you’ve spent on the setup are pretty much wasted.

If you’re one of the users who has been affected, there are a few things that you can try that might work, and there’s no harm in trying them, so read on and try to solve this issue using the methods below.

Method 1: Clean the Download folder

Because one of the many reasons this error might appear is a mix up in the files that are downloaded for the upgrade, one of the possible solutions is going to the folder they’re downloaded in, and deleting everything inside.

  1. Hold the Windows Key and Press R. Type %SystemRoot%\SoftwareDistribution\Download in the run dialog and click OK.
  2. Delete everything, including the files and subfolders. Run the setup again, it should complete without any problems. Note that this method might not work for everyone, and if it doesn’t, move on to the next ones.

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Method 2: Delete everything in Microsoft’s temp directory

This is another directory that might cause files to get mixed up, and deleting everything inside it is a good place to check if you want to fix the error.

  1. Hold the Windows Key and Press R. Type  C:\$Windows.~BT in the run dialog and Click OK. If your operating system isn’t installed in the C: drivepartition, make sure to swap the letter with the appropriate one.
  2. Delete everything in the C:%Windows.~BT folder and try running the media creation tool again.

Method 3: Check your language settings

Incorrect language settings, or time and date settings in some situations, can cause a number of headaches, even though it might not seem like something that would cause issues. Fortunately, checking that and setting it up is fairly easy.

  1. Press the Windows key on your keyboard and type Control Panel, then open the result.
  2. In the top right corner, switch to Icons view, and find and open Languages from the window.
  3. You should now be able to see the language, and it should be set correctly, along with the keyboard layout. If it isn’t, change it to the correct one see steps (here),  after the language has been changed, try running the Media Creation Tool again.
  4. If the language your operating system is set to isn’t in the list of languages, you should add it manually. For older versions of Windows, you should click the Add button, and add the language, as well as the keyboard layout, from the list of languages. For newer versions, you will see an Add a language button above the languages – use it to add the language the OS is currently set to. You can close the language settings after you’re done.

Even though an extremely useful tool, the Media Creation Tool doesn’t come without it’s bugs and quirks. This being one of them, you can easily fix it by following the steps in the methods above.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kamil Anwar


Kamil is a certified MCITP, CCNA (W), CCNA (S) and a former British Computer Society Member with over 9 years of experience Configuring, Deploying and Managing Switches, Firewalls and Domain Controllers also an old-school still active on FreeNode.