Microsoft has confirmed that the forthcoming 128 GB Surface Pro model will feature 83 GB of free space.
The software giant's Windows 8 operating system and the pre-installed software take up around 45 GB of internal storage. The Surface Pro model offers a more complete experience of Microsoft's latest platform compared to the limited Surface RT tablet.
Microsoft stressed that the Surface Pro offers a USB 3.0 port to connect external storage devices, as well as support for its cloud storage service, SkyDrive, which delivers an additional 7 GB of free space.
The entry-level Surface Pro is a 64 GB version, so if the aforementioned figure applies to said model, only 19 GB of storage will be available. The Surface Pro will launch on February 9.
The 32 GB Surface RT model, meanwhile, left 16 GB of storage due to Windows RT and apps. Microsoft was later sued for allegedly falsely advertising the amount of storage space. However, it states how much space will be taken on its website.
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Zak Islam is a freelance writer focusing on security, networking, and general computing. His work also appears at Digital Trends and Tom's Guide.
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killerclick The title of this article should have been Surface Pro 64GB will have 20 GB of usable space.Reply -
merloin I know people are going to complain about the space being used but I honestly don't understand the problem. It's like any disk space, a portion get's used by the OS.Reply
Some may complain that how much space is used is too much but to me, it seems right on par with the desktop variant.
You buy a 128 GB drive, and once formatted, eats away 8GB alone. Then by the time you install the base OS and some applications, I imagine it'd be close to the 85 - 90 GB remaining range, if not a little less. -
A Bad Day MS is only following the leads of HDD manufacturers that insist on using a different method of counting GBs than most software...Reply
Honesty is overrated. -
zander1983 merloinI know people are going to complain about the space being used but I honestly don't understand the problem. It's like any disk space, a portion get's used by the OS.Some may complain that how much space is used is too much but to me, it seems right on par with the desktop variant.You buy a 128 GB drive, and once formatted, eats away 8Gb alone. Then by the time you install the base OS and some applications, I imagine it'd be close to the 85 - 90 GB remaining range, if not a little less.Reply
+1
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keither5150 Real OS requires some real space. We are not talking ipod here. The pro can run everything windows.Reply
I will be getting one once they have a 7 or 8 inch version with over 250GB space. I will be waiting a while. I think that the surface has a micro SD slot as well. 64GB sd card for $52 on Amazon. Some companies will want to charge $200 for an additional 64GB. And you don't even get kissed. -
IAmVortigaunt You can free up more space by moving the recovery disk partition to a usb drive and deleting it off the internal drive.Reply -
jerm1027 merloinI know people are going to complain about the space being used but I honestly don't understand the problem. It's like any disk space, a portion get's used by the OS.Some may complain that how much space is used is too much but to me, it seems right on par with the desktop variant.You buy a 128 GB drive, and once formatted, eats away 8GB alone. Then by the time you install the base OS and some applications, I imagine it'd be close to the 85 - 90 GB remaining range, if not a little less.Personally, my Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit install takes up around 16GB on my notebook, not 45GB. A typical 64 bit Windows install is suppose to be 20GB. 45GB is steep, especially for an operating system that's supposedly designed for tablets. You're right, it's just like any disk, but most disks are also capable of storing more than 500GB, which makes the install less than 10% of space . Solid State Drives are a different animal, especially given their limited capacity, and high cost. Realizing your OS takes 35% of your space in that environment is bound to make a few people ticked off.Reply -
Onihikage When the Surface Pro has both USB 3.0 and a Micro SDXC card slot, who even cares? If you need more than 80GB of space, you'll pop in a 64GB SD card, carry around an external HDD, or both.Reply -
Camikazi jerm1027Personally, my Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit install takes up around 16GB on my notebook, not 45GB. A typical 64 bit Windows install is suppose to be 20GB. 45GB is steep, especially for an operating system that's supposedly designed for tablets. You're right, it's just like any disk, but most disks are also capable of storing more than 500GB, which makes the install less than 10% of space . Solid State Drives are a different animal, especially given their limited capacity, and high cost. Realizing your OS takes 35% of your space in that environment is bound to make a few people ticked off.The used up 45GB is not just Windows 8, it is the Full Windows 8, Office a restore partition and probably a few other programs. What everyone seems to forget is that this is not some limited, mobile only OS it is a full blown, full featured OS and those tend to take up more space.Reply