Increase persistent file size to greater than 4 gigabytes

Question

My USB's 16 GB, but I only get to use 4 GB in persistence file. Any way to increase it?

Solution

Take a look at http://www.pendrivelinux.com/create-a-larger-than-4gb-casper-partition/. The tutorial is for an older version of Ubuntu but works fine for 10.10 and 11.04.

The reason why a separate partition must be created is because the USB creator only makes one partition by default (FAT32 filesystem). Onto that partition it copies the CD or ISO contents and creates a persistence file (ext2 formated) called casper-rw. Since FAT32 can't hold larger then 4GB files the persistence file can't be any larger then 4GB.

Comments

[Oxwivi]

Can't we increase the first partition instead of making a new one?

[webacad]

The USB creator only makes one partition by default (FAT32 filesystem). Onto that partition on copies the CD or ISO contents and creates a persistence file (ext2 formated) called casper-rw. Since FAT32 can't hold larger then 4GB files the persistence file can't be any larger the 4GB. So that's why a separate partition must be created.

[Oxwivi]

Edit the answer and add in the bit about why I can't increase the size of the persistence file.

[Oxwivi]

Can it be any other FS than ext2?