Comment 3 for bug 352766

The 2 GB limit is irrelevant of file system. dd doesn't know about or care about file systems. So creating another partition with another file system would have no affect on dd. Block size is not the same as volume/partition size. The volume size is the block size times the number of blocks. Having very large block sizes is a bad idea for a persistent drive. There is a reason dd doesn't allow block sizes larger than 2 GB, we shouldn't try to get around that.

There is a simple patch in the bug report I linked to that will change it to use 1KB block size. Usb-creator would work correctly with that patch and the persistent drive would be created faster and it would work better for its intended purpose. I think creating a 2nd partition on the drive introduces a lot more complexity and gives little benefit. Remember the persistence file isn't for your data. You can store that in a folder on the regual vfat partition. The persistence file is just for changes in settings, software updates, etc. Four GB should be plenty for the vast majority of users. Also being able to access data on multiple operating systems is often important for flash drive users. A 2nd partition will not be accessible in windows regardless of file system.