TINU fails to format usb drive - Mojave 10.14.1

[mvgiacomello]

I have a handful of usb 2.0 and 3.0 thumbsticks, all 16 or 32 gigs that I tried and all of them the application couldn't format it. In the logs it says:

Process failed, drive format or partition table changement failed, please erase this drive manually with disk utility and then retry

However, if I format manually with disk utility, which works just fine, TINU still tried to format it anyway.

PC: Macbook Pro (13-inch, 2017) running Mojave 10.14.1 (latest as of today)

Logs:

Trying to restore the other options to the default values
Other options restored to the original values
Trying to restore the other options to the default values
Other options restored to the original values
Trying to restore the other options to the default values
Other options restored to the original values
Asking user for autentication
Trying to do user authentication using security foundation APIs
Authentivcation with security foundation APIs completed with success
Starting the process ...


***Trying to close conflicting processes
Process "createinstallmedia" does not needs to be closed
*** "createinstallmedia" closed with sucess or already closed
Process "InstallAssistant" does not needs to be closed
*** "InstallAssistant" closed with sucess or already closed
Process "InstallAssistant_plain" does not needs to be closed
*** "InstallAssistant_plain" closed with sucess or already closed
Process "InstallAssistant_springboard" does not needs to be closed
*** "InstallAssistant_springboard" closed with sucess or already closed
***No conflicting processes found or confilicting processes closed with sucess


###Trying to unmount conficting volumes
    Unmounting EFI partitions
      Unmounting EFI partition disk0s1
    EFI partitions unmounted correctly
    Unmounting "InstallESD"
###Conflicting volumes unmounted with success or already unmounted


Starting extra opertaions before launching the executable
Finished extra opertaions before launching the executable


---Starting drive format process
Formatting disk and change partition scheme with the command:
       diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ "Install macOS Mojave" /dev/disk2
Asking for password
----Volume format process fail: 
         Format script output: 
Started erase on disk2
Unmounting disk
Creating the partition map
Waiting for partitions to activate
Formatting disk2s2 as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with name Install macOS Mojave
Process failed, drive format or partition table changement failed, please erase this drive manually with disk utility and then retry
macOS install media creation process ended
    Unmounting EFI partitions
Trying to restore the other options to the default values
Other options restored to the original values
      Unmounting EFI partition disk0s1
    EFI partitions unmounted correctly
    Unmounting "InstallESD"

[ITzTravelInTime]

the problem you have is that you are not using GUID in your usb drive and disk utility by default doent allow you to change the partition scheme of the drive, so try using disk utility, but forcing the partition method changement, so open disk utility, click on the view button and choose show all the devices in the options that appears, select the entire usb drive and then use the initialize button, to format it in mac os extended journaled with guid partition table, if this doesn't work, try also to run this command to format your usb drive (becuase disk utility in the recent mac os versions has a lot of stupid problems to be honest) when you haven't any drive attached to the machine except for the usb drive:

sudo diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ "Install macOS Mojave" X

note that at the end there is an X you need to replace the x with the id of your usb drive which can be found using the diskutil list command, the id should look something like disk2 or disk3, disk4 ... so the command would be something like this:

sudo diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ "Install macOS Mojave" disk2

but instead of the 2 at the end you whould have the number id of your drive, which may be 2 but may also be another one.

In case of errors with the mathods listed i need to see some pictures, and give me as much info as you can, if needed i will also send you a beta version of tinu wuith error corrections for those fatures.

[mvgiacomello]

Okay, this partially solved the problem.
After trying all you mentioned I was always getting the same error, both on the terminal and with diskutil.
The final solution, which you could potentially add as a side note in the readme file is:

1. Boot the mac in recovery mode with Command+R
2. In the recovery mode, open the terminal and use the command line you mentioned (without sudo)
3. Boot back to normal
4. Be happy ;)

[ITzTravelInTime]

Il giorno 16 nov 2018, alle ore 00:13, Mauricio Giacomello ***@***.***> ha scritto: Okay, this partially solved the problem. After trying all you mentioned I was always getting the same error, both on the terminal and with diskutil. The final solution, which you could potentially add as a side note in the readme file is: Boot the mac in recovery mode with Command+R In the recovery mode use the command line you mentioned Boot back to normal Be happy ;) — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#4 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AWQgDMeFtmkP2IFqM7my6TdKb3p67ENSks5uvfUtgaJpZM4Yey8I>.

Sorry i made some mistakes writing the previous mail. i wanted to say that the problems you are having could be resolved by unmounting the usb drive first and then formatting it, because sometimes mac os itself does not allow to format drives which are accessible for r/w, this problem could come from other programs opened which constantly accesses the drives or by some other mac os feature turned on, but unmounting the drive first should fix it.

[ITzTravelInTime]

i am testing a fix for this problem in TINU because the fail seems to be caused from mac refusing to format mounted partitions, because by default to format the drive tinu does not unmounts it's partitions, so now i am forcing tinu to always eject the drive before formatting it, send me an email to piecaruso97@gmail.com with your telegram username, if you are registered on telegram because i will add you to the TINU beta test group, so you can just download the latest beta version and try it.

[ITzTravelInTime]

Fix tested and seems to work, it will be included inside the new version i will release next week, only downside is that because of the new system used for the user authentication in the new version, it will ask for the login 2 times, for the format operation, because it needs to perform 2 privileged operations

[ITzTravelInTime]

I was forgetting to say that if you want to try the new version you can join the closed beta testing on telegram, you have just to send me an email with your telegram username (if you have a telegram account) and i will add you to the group

[mvgiacomello]

Thanks, but I managed to get it working with the workaround mentioned in the previous comment. Thanks anyway! Great piece of work you have here, really easy to use 😎