Surface Pro: Is 19/83GB free space enough?

[DaveGx]

The storage available versus advertised is a joke. 64gb and you only have 23gb, less than half, useable storage?! What a crock!

 

[theefman]

Its just like any other computer, available storage is always less than actual storage. Delete the recovery partition, uninstall bloatware and you have something in the region of 30GB. If the 64GB isnt enough get the 128GB version. If you cant or wont get that, get something else with a 1TB. Problem solved.

 

[DaveGx]

Its just like any other computer, available storage is always less than actual storage. Delete the recovery partition, uninstall bloatware and you have something in the region of 30GB. If the 64GB isnt enough get the 128GB version. If you cant or wont get that, get something else with a 1TB. Problem solved.

Not exactly. In most cases, you done get less than half of advertised storage. This is worse, much worse.

 

[Coolknight1968]

MS Office Trial is pre installed. Also SD Card does add 64Gb. But In use a 128Gb Ativ-S Pro. I tend to agree with you.

 

[Coolknight1968]

Actually, they didn't say that about the 64GB version, did they? I believe they only gave numbers for the 128GB. I have found, based on the two different Samsung tablets I have, that Windows 8 reserves different amounts of space for recovery, file history, etc depending on how large the disk is. I expect you will find about 20ish GB of space used on the lower end Surface.

My current machine is a Samsung tablet with 128GB, so I assume the Surface Pro 128GB will be very similar, and there is a very easy trick to recover about 17GB of space- just use the built in tool to move the recovery media from the SDD to a USB flash drive. I don't have any idea why, but the recovery partition on mine was huge, and I was happy to get that space back.


Back to your original question, however, yes, MS really should have a 256GB version.

MS should offer 64Gb, 128Gb, 256Gb, 384Gb and 512Gb. Also to make sure that Apple is left in the dust.

 

[ALpHa.Q.RoUgH]

The fact that the necessity of having to buy a SD card just to have space is absurd to me. At least offer a free SD card for the users or something.

 

[martinmc78]

I dont see why its an issue. It comes with a usb 3 port. That means i can link it up to a 2TB portable drive for all my x86 programs, all my music, pictures and films and run everything off of there. Are people really going to use 83GB for apps?? I dont think there are 83gb worth of apps in the entire store.

Or (more likely) has it suddenly become an issue because Apple just said they are releasing a 128GB ipad for roughly the same price as the surface pro?

 

[ALpHa.Q.RoUgH]

I dont see it as an issue, but you have to consider the computer illiterate people who will not know/move the partition files off the surface to gain more space.

A person who thinks "Oh 64GB should be good enough for me" will be shocked/disappointed when they see they only have 23GB left or run out of space in about 2-3 months. Then this leads to bad word of mouth being spread, thus hurting sales.

 

[martinmc78]

MS should offer 64Gb, 128Gb, 256Gb, 384Gb and 512Gb. Also to make sure that Apple is left in the dust.

512 SSD's are ridiculously expensive though no point pricing themsleves out of the market.

 

[Steve Ridges]

I dont see why its an issue. It comes with a usb 3 port. That means i can link it up to a 2TB portable drive for all my x86 programs, all my music, pictures and films and run everything off of there. Are people really going to use 83GB for apps?? I dont think there are 83gb worth of apps in the entire store.

Or (more likely) has it suddenly become an issue because Apple just said they are releasing a 128GB ipad for roughly the same price as the surface pro?

I like how sites like Gizmodo talk about Apples 128GB iPad and say no one needs it because everything is moving / should be stored in the cloud but bash MS because their tablet doesn't have a ton of local storage.

 

[coolqf]

I like how sites like Gizmodo talk about Apples 128GB iPad and say no one needs it because everything is moving / should be stored in the cloud but bash MS because their tablet doesn't have a ton of local storage.

The iPad uses less than 5gb and the surface pro uses close to 40gb out of the box. You could download the 20 most famous apps for iPad and the same for surface pro, and the iPad would still have storage to spare.

Out of the box the 64gb surface pro loses points due to reduced versatility.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

 

[evilrobot]

There it is, the reply to my question. It is SDXC but only up to 64gb, which is a shame since there's 128gb cards now and that would've alleviated the storage situation. Oh well... :unhappy:

Can you provide a link to a 128GB micro sdxc? I'm pretty sure they don't exist.

 

[evilrobot]

So, it looks like I'm going to have to move my My Documents, My Videos, and My Pictures folders to an external hdd. I do this on my desktop PC without any problems, but I ALWAYS have that external hdd plugged in. Anybody happen to know what happens if you do that and then remove the external hdd?

 

[conanheath]

Can you provide a link to a 128GB micro sdxc? I'm pretty sure they don't exist.

You're right, they don't exist. SDXC does support up to 128gb and I did see micro 128gb in a news piece once. Only problem was it retailed for $1000 and I, like you, have never found one. For all I know it could have been photo shopped. It was a Lexar from what I remember.

I have my RT set up to save music and photos to micro SD and my documents are still saved on internal. On 64gb RT, I still have 45gb available on device with RT office suite and all apps and 10gb available on SD. The limited memory can be worked with, you just can't have more than 64gb and have it all stored in same place. Indexing on SD is still an issue. It would be nice if 128gb micro did exist and it was affordable.

 

[coolqf]

So, it looks like I'm going to have to move my My Documents, My Videos, and My Pictures folders to an external hdd. I do this on my desktop PC without any problems, but I ALWAYS have that external hdd plugged in. Anybody happen to know what happens if you do that and then remove the external hdd?

I did this once with windows 7 and the result was the folders defaulting to the original location if it's not found

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

 

[evilrobot]

I did this once with windows 7 and the result was the folders defaulting to the original location if it's not found

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

Nice! Do you happen to know if it automatically goes back when you plug it back in?

 

[coolqf]

Nice! Do you happen to know if it automatically goes back when you plug it back in?

On windows 7, I had to update the folder location. Easy to do, but a pain in the butt. As a result I know longer redirect default folders to external drives

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

 

[evilrobot]

On windows 7, I had to update the folder location. Easy to do, but a pain in the butt. As a result I know longer redirect default folders to external drives

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

Ah, well yeah that's a problem This is going to be for my non-techie wife so that can't happen. Guess I'm back to hoping that the SSD is user replaceable. Thanks for the info!

 

[KLinCHI]

People are also forgetting you can copy your backup to a external device and delete the partition. Freeing up space

Is this something a non-tech savvy person can do without too much trouble or messing up their unit?

 

[Po_MD]

Is this something a non-tech savvy person can do without too much trouble or messing up their unit?

With all the DIYs and How-Tos, it's a cakewalk.