Error using MacOS Mojave Patcher

I'm attempting to update a MacBookPro8,1 2011 to MacOS Mojave using dosdude's handy tool:

After formatting 2 separate 16GB flash drives, using the tool gives me the following error:

Running diskutil list gives me the following output:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *256.1 GB disk0 1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1 2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 255.9 GB disk0s2
/dev/disk1 (synthesized): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: APFS Container Scheme - +255.9 GB disk1 Physical Store disk0s2 1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 78.2 GB disk1s1 2: APFS Volume Preboot 43.9 MB disk1s2 3: APFS Volume Recovery 1.0 GB disk1s3 4: APFS Volume VM 4.3 GB disk1s4
/dev/disk2 (external, physical): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: FDisk_partition_scheme *15.7 GB disk2 1: Apple_HFS 15.7 GB disk2s1

I'm not too familiar with the inner workings of MacOS so any help would be greatly appreciated.

1 Answer

The error says disk3 yet that's not in your diskutil info, so you need to be certain which disk you are trying to copy to.

In your diskutil list, disk2 looks a likely candidate, however, it is showing as FDisk [which is a Windows-type MBR, Master Boot Record] & needs to be GUID for a bootable HFS+ partition.

The picture on dosDude's site is wrong. You don't format a partition on your USB stick/SD card you format the entire 'disk' like this…

Select the overall 'disk' device, not any partition within it, then click Erase & make sure the Format & Scheme are macOS Extended (Journaled) [this is HFS+] & GUID Partition Map [this is essential for it to be bootable]. This will, of course, delete any & all data already on it - again make sure you get the right one.