What does this USB error message mean?

Question

What does this USB error message mean?

For context, I am running OS10.13.6 and using Install Disk Creator to make a flash drive containing the High Sierra installer, which I was able to download (unfortunately I did not save the installer when I originally downloaded the OS). I was able to make a drive of Mojave (don't ask how long it took me to find it) before installing it and all went well according to the instructions. But when I tried to make another drive of the High Sierra installer, attached is the error I am getting. I have tried 6-7 different 16 GB and 32 GB drives with the same result. Ejecting and reinserting did not help. Rebooting did not help either. The drive is plugged directly into the computer, not a hub. I have tried to cover all possible bases for error. But, unlike with Mojave, which was incredibly easy to do, nothing works for High Sierra. Does anyone know what the problem is and how I can accomplish this?

iMac 27", macOS 10.13

Posted on Dec 10, 2019 12:24 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Hazel Greenberg Author

Level 1

27 points

Dec 11, 2019 4:52 PM in response to BDAqua

Good news. The problem is solved. I found a website that tells you how to find the installer and create the disk. It worked this time.

https://www.techjunkie.com/download-high-sierra-mojave/

However, after finding this, I found out that all you need to do is ask an Apple tech to send you a link to the old installers at the Apple store, and s/he will do it.!

A lot of wasted time :<(

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Answer 2

Dec 10, 2019 1:18 PM in response to Hazel Greenberg

I just tried to make the disk via Terminal, and I got the message that the installer does not appear to valid. It did come from App Store. But if there is something wrong with it, then clearly the process of creating a disk won't work. Should I re-download it? And can I assume that because the Mojave installer did allow me to create a disk that it is actually OK to install?

Actually, oddly, I was trying to download the High Sierra installer because I could not find Mojave, but when the process was complete, both of them, including Mavericks, appeared in the Applications folder. I have no idea what to make of this.

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

245,483 points

Dec 10, 2019 4:18 PM in response to Hazel Greenberg

What size did you get, is it the stub installer of ~20MB, or the needed full one of several GB?

I wonder if this still works...

Of course as others have pointed out sometimes this results in only getting a 'stub' installer which is not suitable for then creating a bootable USB drive installer.

The way that I have found that is consistently able to download full installers is to run installinstallmacos.py as per

 https://github.com/munki/macadmin-scripts

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Answer 4

Dec 11, 2019 7:45 AM in response to BDAqua

Yes, it is the full installer. About 5 GB. I will check out your link, though. As above, since the Terminal method did not work, I assumed there must be something wrong with it. However, in all my research on this, I found a Macworld how-to article on this issue that said they could not get the Terminal method to work.

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