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.

• Download the tool from here:
  • https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/
• Select your USB stick from the combo box at the top
  • WARNING: Be careful to choose the right disk that equates to your USB stick!
• confirm you have selected the right disk by assessing the capacity
• then click the “Format” button

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.