News - Microsoft Surface Pro 128GB only has 83GB of free space

[HEXUS]

Microsoft says Surface "system software uses significant storage space".

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[crossy]

I'm not sure what to make of this. After all, my understanding is that the Surface Pro is NOT designed as a replacement for a proper laptop - more targetted instead on those light-spec ultrabooks. So really only as vehicles for Office plus perhaps one or two specialised applications? I can't really see someone seriously wanting to run Photoshop for example.

As the article says, there's always disk crates, flash drives or cloud storage for your data. And I'm sure I remember seeing someone saying that they'd got a way to (seamlessly?) get programs installed on removable storage and not have Windows have a fit when the drive wasn't there all the time.

Oh, and I just checked my work's laptop (which has quite a lot of stuff installed in addition to the usual Windows7+Office Pro) and the total space used is claimed to be 105GB. But that includes 53GB of music files, software archives and virtual machines. So maybe the Surface Pro is fine for business use, but less so for home use.

[jimbouk]

For the price you'd really expect more I think. Sounds like they could have done with a 64GB partition just for the OS and either a 64GB and 128GB user partition.

[TheAnimus]

Crossy, wouldn't you just put all the music on a MicroSDXC card?

A friend of mine bought a toshiba ultrabook for about £600 iirc. It has a rather small SSD. After the recovery partition (which this surface no doubt has) it had about 30gb free. a couple of 16GB sd cards make up their media collection of films.

Whilst not ideal, its a lot more economic to buy SD cards than SSDs due to the much cheaper flash requirements.

[valhar2000]

So, does anybody know what those 37GB actually are? Does the Surface Pro come with a lot of pre-installed software, like pre-built computers usually do, or do they somehow need that much for the OS?

The latter seems hard to believe, since the OS on my W8 VM does not use anywhere near as much storage space.

[TheAnimus]

Well there is the recovery partition, that will be big.

Given that the Surface RT ships with Office, so will the surface Pro, granted it will probably be a home license unless you've got office 365 or some other upsell ****. But there goes another few GB.

[CK_1985]

37GB?!? How have they managed to take up so much space just with system software? I haven't yet used Windows 8 so I don't know what 'apps' come pre-installed but I'm guessing it must be quite a few!

If I were buying a Surface (and I probably would be if I could afford it!) it would be to replace my laptop - so I don't think I could live with the 19GB estimated free space on the 64GB version. I accept the point that you could put all you media/docs on a SD card but you still need space for programs somehwere!

This could very well kill the 64GB version if these figures turn out to be accurate.

[kingpotnoodle]

Disk capacity fudge means 128GB is really only around 122GB, then you have a recovery partition, the OS and apps installed and you're down to 83GB - entirely normal and just like every other Ultrabook out there. People are just confused because it looks like a tablet and that is apparently like Googling "Google" for them.

If you don't like it then scrub it and reinstall yourself without all the recovery crap and bloat. Job done. I assume you can do this from USB media as the Surface is basically just an Ultrabook?

Also, no you don't get Office with the Pro because you can just buy any edition as normal - unlike on Win RT.

[Spud1]

This makes the 64GB "Pro" a bit redundant - OK so it's not meant as a PC replacemenet - but giving that amount of space for something that's got a key selling point of being able to run "full" apps..its crazy!

The 128gb one makes more sense now and imo 80gb or so is enough for the apps I would want, and I would use a memory card for "media"..but given the huge % of space thats taken up by the OS install/Recovery partition, I think MS are being sneaky with their advertising.

Why not provide the recovery partition on a memory stick like Apple do with their Mac Airs etc? It's an elegant solution that really works, and takes up no space on the machine. Crazy.

[McPhee]

Smells like a 'worst case scenario' situation to me. Windows 8 is ~13GB out of the box. Add to that a recovery partition, several system restore points and optional Windows extras like Media Centre, and maybe you could hit that 36GB mark (going by my own 128GB SSD, it formats to 119GB).

Looking at my own PC, I can see problems with the 64GB. Before clean-up I had 38.5GB free on my 128GB SSD. After emptying my Download folder and running CCleaner, I now have 66.5GB of free space. If there was a recovery partition on there, I'd have used more than 64GB. I have about 4GB of programs/apps installed, 2GB of Spotify downloads and 10GB of Gamecube ISOs (rare games that I can't find in hard copy). My user folder (accounting for the Spotify downloads) takes up a further 1GB. On a 64GB Surface, I'd have to forego the GC games (or any other type of game that's more than a couple of hundred MB) and I'd still be low on drive space. Owners of the 64GB machine are going to have to be very disciplined with keeping it clean or they're going to have problems.

On the other hand, I can't see any issues with 128GB. SD cards aren't a bad substitute if you really NEED your entire music/video/games collection with you (would I be right in thinking you could put Steam back-ups on an SD card?). Otherwise, there's enough space for a couple of games and a few hours of music (1080p video might be pushing it though. You'd get what? Two or three Blu-Ray rips on there before running out of space?).

[martian_aphid]

Sounds very poorly optimised for what is essentialy a mobile-oriented OS, where storage is often at a premium. One of their main focusses when designing Wiindows 8 should have been to keep as small a footprint as possible - nearly 40GB is not really a decent job :S I've no doubt there will be the usual tips/tricks once the device is out to trim it down to something less than 20GB, probably disabling VSS, etc. to recover some space. Nonetheless it appears far too bloated.

[wombat]

Does seem a bit of a space hog really when you come to think of it, it isn't as if they have to stuff it to the gills with tons of extra drivers or anything.

[zarnywoop]

I think the point is it is a mobile device, and there's not really a need to download all your songs to a device. In any case, With Windows 8 and RT you get free music streaming via Xbox Music. And since there is no mobile internet connection, you are likely to be on Wi-Fi mostly anyway. The only downside is lack of space for applications (although there should be sufficient for most needs) and I don't think you are likely to be storing your Steam collection on the device, but probably keep it to the most used applications you need Office, Photoshop or whatever extras. If the specs don't suit, then that's why you have ultra books and other tablets.

Its quite ironic that there are "complaints" that the Surface Pro isn't optimised for a mobile device, yet Surface RT is slated for not being compatible with x86 apps.

[realstock]

One of their main focuses when designing Windows 8 should have been to keep as small a footprint as possible

Exactly!! Stinks of bloatware to me. Also don't forget the windows updates will follow.

You could end up in a position of needing to delete application(s)/perform general house keeping to release enough space so you can perform the latest critical security update.

[crossy]

Well there is the recovery partition, that will be big.

Given that the Surface RT ships with Office, so will the surface Pro, granted it will probably be a home license unless you've got office 365 or some other upsell ****. But there goes another few GB.

Hmm, given this seems to be designed as an always-internet device then I'd argue that install-on-demand for Office would make a lot of sense.

In any case, With Windows 8 and RT you get free music streaming via Xbox Music.

XBox Music isn't quite a "free streaming" system - if you check the Ts&Cs you'll see "Free streaming limited to 10 hours/month after 6 months; unlimited with paid subscription".

I'm going to agree with the guru's above - if I got one of these then I'd be buying a hellish big SDXC card and slapping my music collection on that. So I can get all my music - irrespective of whether I've got a WiFi signal or not. Just like I already do with my S3 phone (64GB uSDXC card from day 1). Amazon are selling a 64GB card for £40, which'd be enough for me to put on my entire music collection and some videos too. Job done!

[TheAnimus]

Why not provide the recovery partition on a memory stick like Apple do with their Mac Airs etc? It's an elegant solution that really works, and takes up no space on the machine. Crazy.

This a million times over.

My small ultrabook had a 18GB recovery partition on its SSD... WTF?! That got blitzed on day 1.