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I would like to use my USB stick for my data, while keeping a bootable live copy of Ubuntu on it for the emergencies.

I think that until some versions ago the StartupDiskCreator would create a bootable drive that I could still use to store other (non OS) data.

Currently, I am left with two write-only partitions, big just enough to contain the OS, and plenty of spare, unformatted, space: see screenshot from the Disk utility

Disk utility

Can I create a partition in that free space and use it on other Linux, Mac, and Windows computers (I'll make it a FAT filesystem)?

(There are other answers regarding this, but they are from before the Live USB sticks started showing the present behavior)

Zanna
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Nicola Sap
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2 Answers2

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I wanted to do this too (have a 6G partition with Ubuntu and the rest of the key as exFat for regular use) and could not manage with mkusb (might be possible but it's too low level, you have to know every option they talk about). The only time I managed to do the partitioning, the key would not boot.

In the end I managed to do it with unetbootin. I formatted my 128GB key as basic MBR, then created a 6GB partition for Ubuntu and the rest as exFat for storage. I then installed ubuntu on the 6GB partition using unetbootin.

Partition table

Adrien Rey-Jarthon
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The only use for a SDC install nowadays is for making an installer drive.

If you want something that saves your last session you can do a Full install to the flash drive or you can make a Persistent install using mkusb: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb .

Mkusb has a small boot partition, an ISO9660 read only partition for the OS, an ext4 casper-rw partition for persistence and a NTFS partition for data. Both Linux and Windows can use the data partition.

A persistent install is more compact than a full install but may not be as secure.

C.S.Cameron
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  • I don't want to save the last state. I just want to use the USB stick as a storage drive from outside the OS that it carries. – Nicola Sap Oct 09 '17 at 19:25
  • With a mkusb flash drive you can delete the persistent partition, and expand the storage partition, (or format a new storage partition FAT32 for max compatibility), if you just want a Live drive with storage, However a small persistent partition will let you pretty up the desktop and get rid of the start up screen. – C.S.Cameron Oct 09 '17 at 21:38