Disk Utility - Restore Failure Invalid Argument

[chenks]

have downloaded my copy of Mountain Lion DP4 (yes i am part of the apple seed program). trying to burn the InstallESD.dmg to a USB stick to do a clean install.

i'm using the same instructions i used for Lion - Disk Utility > create 1 partition with GUID > then restore the DMG to the USB stick.

i keep getting the following error. any ideas why? (it's a 16GB USB stick).

it fails at around 90%-ish of the way thru restoring.

 

[Mal]

Mount the .dmg file first by double-clicking it, then drag the volume to the Source portion of that window, instead of the .dmg file itself.

jW

 

[chenks]

Mount the .dmg file first by double-clicking it, then drag the volume to the Source portion of that window, instead of the .dmg file itself.

jW

hmmm... i've not done that with any other times i've used this process.
as i said, it starts (saying it will take 30 minutes or so to complete), and fails with about 6 minutes left to go.

 

[Mal]

hmmm... i've not done that with any other times i've used this process.
as i said, it starts (saying it will take 30 minutes or so to complete), and fails with about 6 minutes left to go.

It may not be necessary, but mounting the disk image will also force Disk Utility to verify it, in case it's corrupted. Did you try doing it that way?

jW

 

[chenks]

It may not be necessary, but mounting the disk image will also force Disk Utility to verify it, in case it's corrupted. Did you try doing it that way?

jW

it verifies fine as i can mount it and use it with no problems.
it's only the restore process that fails.

 

[radiohed]

have downloaded my copy of Mountain Lion DP4 (yes i am part of the apple seed program). trying to burn the InstallESD.dmg to a USB stick to do a clean install.

i'm using the same instructions i used for Lion - Disk Utility > create 1 partition with GUID > then restore the DMG to the USB stick.

i keep getting the following error. any ideas why? (it's a 16GB USB stick).

it fails at around 90%-ish of the way thru restoring.

Image

I am getting this same error. The USB stick and the ML image both verify fine. I'm stumped.

 

[radiohed]

Mount the .dmg file first by double-clicking it, then drag the volume to the Source portion of that window, instead of the .dmg file itself.

jW

Thanks! I tried this and it worked.

 

[clukas]

Mount the .dmg file first by double-clicking it, then drag the volume to the Source portion of that window, instead of the .dmg file itself.

jW

I am also getting this error, will try this solution and report back.

 

[Roc P.]

I got this error as well this morning. I am at work right now so I can't try the method of mounting the InstallESD.img file to the desktop first and then using that one.

I made a thread about it before I saw his one:
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=15324149&posted=1#post15324149

 

[robpow]

Mount the .dmg file first by double-clicking it, then drag the volume to the Source portion of that window, instead of the .dmg file itself.

jW

I had the same error and this fixed it, thanks!

Matt

 

[Roc P.]

I had the same error and this fixed it, thanks!

Matt

Nice! I think when I get home from work I will try this method and see how it goes.

 

[gumblecosby]

have downloaded my copy of Mountain Lion DP4 (yes i am part of the apple seed program). trying to burn the InstallESD.dmg to a USB stick to do a clean install.

i'm using the same instructions i used for Lion - Disk Utility > create 1 partition with GUID > then restore the DMG to the USB stick.

i keep getting the following error. any ideas why? (it's a 16GB USB stick).

it fails at around 90%-ish of the way thru restoring.

Image

I just ignored that. Try to boot from it. It should still work. I installed mine with no problems anyway.

 

[2499723]

Mount the .dmg file first by double-clicking it, then drag the volume to the Source portion of that window, instead of the .dmg file itself.

jW

Thanks for these instructions. I was getting so frustrated, but by mounting the image and restoring that to a partition on my external HDD, I now have a bootable version of Mountain Lion. Thanks.

 

[Mal]

I'm glad that a simple tip can be so helpful to so many people.

jW

 

[Baytriple]

I used carbon copy cloner to do what the OP was doing. Works fine and free b

 

[Roc P.]

I re-downloaded Mountain Lion and tried this method:

http://osxdaily.com/2012/02/17/make-bootable-os-x-10-8-mountain-lion-usb-install-drive/

...and I got no error. I haven't tried using the USB Key yet however.

 

[burnhamish]

Ignore the Restore Failure Error Message

Just ignore the error message if you do the manual method. You will see that everything is fine on the USB drive.

 

[esskay]

Mount the .dmg file first by double-clicking it, then drag the volume to the Source portion of that window, instead of the .dmg file itself.

jW

Genius! This worked for me too! Thanks!!

 

[nikixxxx]

try ownership status on usb stick...should work

hmmm... i've not done that with any other times i've used this process.
as i said, it starts (saying it will take 30 minutes or so to complete), and fails with about 6 minutes left to go.

 

[cool11]

I have the same problem but I cannot make the above solution work for me(mavericks).

 

[Weaselboy]

I have the same problem but I cannot make the above solution work for me(mavericks).

The solutions here won't work as Mavericks handles that installer differently.

You can either manually make the installer in Terminal following this, or just use this utility to make your installer key.

 

[DamianPerera]

Possible Fix

Unmount the partition of the USB stick first . Also make sure that the stick is formatted to 1 partition.

Once unmounted, either use Disk Utility to restore the image or use Terminal and enter the following command;

sudo dd if=/path/to/target.img of=/dev/rdiskN bs=1m

* Drag and drop the image file to the Terminal after 'sudo dd if=' in order to automatically get the file path.
* replace 'N' with the number assigned to your USB stick - can be found using Info in Disk Utility or by entering 'diskutil list' in the Terminal
* If you get an error, replace bs=1m with bs=1M

Another reason why you get the error might be because the .dmg image file was saved as either 'compressed' or 'read only'. In this instance you need to mount the .dmg image in Disk Utility, select 'Convert' and save the file as a read/write image. Afterwards highlight the new image file in Disk Utility, click on 'Images' and select 'Scan Image for Restore' - then try the normal recover procedure using Disk Utility.

 

[26139]

Yup

Mount the .dmg file first by double-clicking it, then drag the volume to the Source portion of that window, instead of the .dmg file itself.

jW

Old thread I know, but I had this problem tonight and fixed it via the advice above.

Thanks!

 

[alswann]

Mount the .dmg file first by double-clicking it, then drag the volume to the Source portion of that window, instead of the .dmg file itself.

jW

Thanks!
Al

 

[hiroshi.rio]

Mount the .dmg file first by double-clicking it, then drag the volume to the Source portion of that window, instead of the .dmg file itself.

jW

Many thanks. Worked.