I suggest this will be the easiest and more painless path for most people, as the native Mac/Windows formatting+partitioning tools can be quite fiddly and not as straightforward.
So far, the most prominently mentioned tool I've encountered is the following, I have tried it myself on Mac, with success. Many others in the fb group have reported success after formatting with this tool, in both Mac and Windows.
I have assessed the result of the format produced by this tool and can confirm it is FAT32+MBR.
If this doesn't solve your problem, get back to us in the fb forum and let us know.
Once the format is complete, copy your “THEC64-drive8.d64” file across and try it on your c64 mini.
If problems persist, let us know in either the community forum or the facebook group.