Could not validate sizes – Operation not permitted. The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error 1.)

Question

I am following instructions for creating a Bootable drive (generously provided in this answer by a gentleman named David Anderson). I am using a 16GB SD card to try to create a Bootable drive from my MacBook running Catalina.

The instructions could be simplified by doing a Restore using the Disk Utility to the external drive (SD card or flash drive), with BaseSystem.dmg being the restore source.

The problem is that when I try this, I get the following error (also see screenshot)

Could not validate sizes – Operation not permitted. The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error 1.)

What does this mean? Is there a better way to fix this than the one given in David Anderson's answer. Or, can the asr command be made to work reliably, so the Disk Utility would not have to be used?

Are you attempting to create a bootable installer of Catalina or simply a USB flash with Catalina installed on it? — Allan, Apr 29 '20 at 21:45
Ok..so you also said "...from my MacBook running Catalina." Why not just download the installer and use createinstallmedia per Apple's instructions? This seems like a rather roundabout way to accomplish this. — Allan, Apr 30 '20 at 12:27
@Allan: I edited the question. My answer, that the OP was referring to, involved an El Capitan installer. — David Anderson, May 01 '20 at 20:21

score 25 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 09 '20 at 11:21

25

I think the "Operation is not permitted" may be caused by Disk Utility lacking the necessary admin privileges.

sudo /usr/sbin/asr restore --source BaseSystem.dmg --target /Volumes/MyVolume --erase

Should do the trick (terms and conditions apply)

answered Jun 09 '20 at 11:21

simonandersen

391
2
3

This is what worked for me, thanks! – Roger Jun 22 '20 at 17:13
1

This worked! I also had to open Disk Utility and prepare the source image via Images > Scan for restore... – Niall Smart Jul 04 '20 at 20:19
I had to put quotes around the source and target parameters for this to work, e.g. --source "BaseSystem.dmg" – Andreas Jan 18 '21 at 08:58
2
This worked for me in attempting to re-install Mac OS X Lion (previously bought in App Store) on an old Macbook. Benign error messages:
```
Expected 7425D663
but got 84E748B9
Could not restore - Invalid argument```
```
– Lloyd Dewolf Jul 05 '21 at 18:52
1

This almost worked for me. It did not succeed doing it straight from the DMG though. I had to mount the DMG and use the mounted directory as the source. – Jean-François Beauchamp Jul 19 '21 at 16:56
I got exactly the same error as @LloydDewolf – BallpointBen Dec 01 '22 at 19:56
I got the same error but had NO TROUBLE using the memory stick to re-install Lion. – dldnh Dec 29 '23 at 19:59

score 9 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 12 '20 at 10:40

9

You can do it easily using ASR command

You have to scan your downloaded image via following command

sudo /usr/sbin/asr imagescan --source ~/Downloads/macOSUpdCombo10.15.7.dmg

After scan you have to run following coammand to restore the image into the USB.

sudo /usr/sbin/asr restore --source <IMAGE_PATH> --target /Volumes/<VOLUME_NAME> --erase

If there is any issue, please share in here.

answered Oct 12 '20 at 10:40

Tahir Fazal

191

2

I found that before imagescan would run I had to convert the source image to read-only using the image Convert command in Disk Utility. – nmgeek Nov 15 '20 at 04:21
The above solution didn't work because imagescan was needed. Thanks! – Chirag Arora Jul 06 '23 at 21:23

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 29 '20 at 19:05

Ok, first of all, to be clear, you are doing this from macOS Recovery or while you are booted up on the bootable USB installer right? Also, a 16GB SD card is not enough to hold macOS Catalina. If you are looking to make an SD card that has a ready installation of macOS Catalina, then you can download the Install macOS Catalina app and then use that to install on the SD card (again, the amount of storage isn't enough). https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/reinstall-macos-mchlp1599/mac.

If you are experiencing issues with creating a bootable installer, then I think your best option would be to download the Install macOS Catalina app from the App Store and then use the creatinstallmedia command to create the installer. See the link for more https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372.

I edited the question. My answer, that the OP was referring to, involved an El Capitan installer. AFAIK, there has been no mention by the OP or me of installing Catalina on a SD card. — David Anderson, May 01 '20 at 20:30
@DavidAnderson The question was unclear so I provided instructions for both. — Todd, May 01 '20 at 20:32

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered May 05 '20 at 09:21

if you have access to Terminal you can:

list your disks

diskutil list to get your SD_CARD_NAME
unmount your SD card

diskutil unmountDisk force /dev/SD_CARD_NAME
erase it with the desired file system (AFS or JHFS+)

diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ Emptied /dev/SD_CARD_NAME

Then go ahead with your restore

Could not validate sizes – Operation not permitted. The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error 1.)

4 Answers4