

Surface disk space FAQ - mtgx
http://www.microsoft.com/Surface/en-US/support/surface-with-windows-RT/files-folders-and-online-storage/surface-disk-space-faq

======
engtech
This is the same B.S. that happened with the Xbox 360 hard drives.

In 2006 Microsoft sold a 20GB hard drive for $120 (which could have bought at
least a non-branded 100 GB hard drive)

When you used it with the 360, the hard drive would only report 14 GB because
6GB were used for the OS.

<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/911593>

FYI Apple's operating system takes up 1GB, so this is relevant because a 32GB
Surface has a much usable storage as a 16GB iPad (source:
[http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-surface-storage-
siz...](http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-surface-storage-
size-2012-10))

~~~
lloeki
> _6GB were used for the OS._

Not really the same though, since the XBox OS fully resides in
Flash/ROM/however-you-want-to—call-it-internal-storage 16MB ( _megabytes!_ )
filesystem, and you can readily boot without the hard disk[0]. Those 6GB were
merely "set aside".

The price is a complete rip-off though.

[0] this may have changed since NXE, but the OS is still extremely small by
today's standards, e.g the last one is 113MB: _[http://support.xbox.com/en-
US/xbox-360/system-updates/system...](http://support.xbox.com/en-
US/xbox-360/system-updates/system-updates-
info#00569e16d2844366beafb52b4d747a77*)

~~~
Brentley_11
As of November 19, 2008 the Xbox OS actually requires additional disk space.
It's why they discontinued the Xbox 360 Arcade console package since it didn't
come with a hard drive.

"While previous system updates have been stored on internal memory, the NXE
was the first to require a storage device—at least a 128 MB memory card or a
hard drive." <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360#New_Xbox_Experience>

------
floppydisk
I must say though, they do get a lot of bonus points for honestly laying out
exactly where everything went and how much space each component takes up. On
top of that, they even gave storage improvement options aren't simply giant
advertisement for their cloud services. Color me impressed with MS's upfront
honesty.

~~~
mtgx
Not exactly "upfront honesty" when they didn't say this before they started
advertising as a "32 GB tablet" knowing _full well_ that what consumers will
think is that they get 32 GB of storage for a $500 price.

They only did this now after others have already debunked their storage claim:

[http://semiaccurate.com/2012/10/31/microsoft-surface-can-
not...](http://semiaccurate.com/2012/10/31/microsoft-surface-can-not-compete-
against-real-tablet/)

Also shame on most tech reviewers who didn't even notice this in their
reviews, or didn't want to say it.

~~~
JasonFruit
I think you have unrealistic expectations. If you read an advertisement for a
computer with a 250GB hard drive, do you really expect it all to be available
space? I don't think anyone else does, so why would they think that in this
case?

~~~
drcube
I would expect the vast majority of it to be free space.

If you bought a laptop with a 250GB hard drive, and found when you booted it
that ~125GB were used by the OS, would you be okay with that? Especially when
the HD storage was a prominently advertised feature?

------
archangel_one
So when Microsoft were talking about having a consistent experience between
tablet and PC, I didn't think this was what they'd be thinking of. This
reminds me of my current desktop, which I ran out of space on the SSD almost
immediately and then spent an instructive half-hour cutting down swap space
and getting rid of the hibernation file. Seems like the first thing to do on a
Surface would be to find some way of freeing up that space.

I feel a bit mean poking fun at Microsoft now, but honestly, it amazes me that
they'd think it was acceptable to take up half the hard drive of your tablet -
especially given that storage space is one of the major metrics that mobile
devices are sold on at the moment!

~~~
avree
The microSD slot allows you to add up to 128GB of storage fairly cheaply to
your Surface.

I don't see this as a big problem.

------
raverbashing
Really?

Recovery tools on a TABLET?

What's the size of iPad firmware again? Around 1GB apparently

How much is the crud that Windows accumulated all this time?

I'm beginning to think all the 16-bit pieces of windows are still there (I
mean, the part that compiled)

Talk about a monolithic mess

~~~
alanctgardner2
This sort of size is necessary to support a tablet which isn't hopelessly
tethered to a PC. The iPad avoids a big recovery image by requiring you to
restore it from your PC. You've offloaded this function onto an (arguably)
more capable device. But how much external storage can you buy for the cost of
a whole PC. For some users who don't create a lot of content, the Surface
realistically could be their only device, and being able to restore it without
a PC is a lot of convenience.

~~~
whalesalad
This is no longer the case with iCloud.

All of my 'iDevices' are now untethered from my computer. When I bought my
iPhone 5 they actually made me wait for the iCloud restore to complete before
I could leave the store.

Backed up my iPhone 4 before jumping the train to the Apple store. Walked in,
purchased the new one, iCloud sync, walked out with virtually the same data I
walked in with on a faster and prettier device =)

~~~
drivebyacct2
Is this being touted as an Apple feature that Android retroactively stole 3
years in the past yet?

~~~
potatolicious
Downvoted. Nobody mentioned anything about Apple being first, merely that this
feature exists and is useful.

------
jerf
What a fantastic time to live in, where we can describe 128 billion things
with the adjective "only", and sniff derisively at them.

~~~
tkahn6
Well if you wanna go that route, a loaf of bread for dinner is 'only'
trillions and trillions of atoms.

~~~
pavel_lishin
And a lot of those atoms are just air!

~~~
blhack
No they're not, they're empty space.

~~~
drcube
"Empty space" isn't made out of atoms. And yes, there's plenty of air in a
loaf of bread.

------
wlesieutre
Then it's a good thing Class 10 MicroSD cards are under $1/gig?

~~~
Nursie
Yup.

Kinda felt like Google shot themselves in the foot by missing them out of
their nexus tablets. The idea that it's a negative because people don't like
managing what they use the space for... well it doesn't fly with me.

~~~
manmal
Yeah - they should at least have included read-only SD card reading, for media
consumption. My dad currently does not know what tablet to buy because
reportedly the Google devices are great, but they don't have the slot.

------
rplnt
Well, at least you can plug a card in there.

Just out of curiosity, how is it on other tablets (ios, android). Is some
portion of the marketed memory occupied at all times? If so how big is the
percentage?

~~~
mtgx
iOS and Androd only take 1 GB or less, and there's another 8% or so that comes
from the conversion of 160,000 MB to 16 GB.

~~~
Mythbusters
That tis not correct. It's much more than a gig.

------
pdubs
Well at least they come right out with it and explain _exactly_ why the free
space is what it is.

------
squarecat
While it's not news for a computing device to rely on ignorance in regards to
marketing of specs, at what point does it cross the line from casually
misleading to intentionally deceptive?

------
meaty
I know humor is frowned upon here, but it makes me think of the following:
<http://i.imgur.com/Rcu0C.jpg>

------
cooldeal
Yes, but you can stick a 32 or 64GB SD card in it(or swap through many as
needed) because it has an SD card slot. You can even put in USB flash drives
since it has a full size powered USB port with hub support. Hell,you could
connect a 2TB portable USB drive and it would work(at the expense of battery).
Try doing that with an iPad or Nexus 7 or even the Nexus 10. Google's devices
are supposed to be more open but I cannot understand why they want to force
upsell you to the more expensive options to add additional storage by omitting
MicroSD slots.

~~~
mtgx
The point still remains that they advertised the tablet as being higher value,
when it's not. You can get a Nexus 10 with 16 GB of storage and a much higher
resolution than the Surface for $400.

~~~
josefresco
The 'value' you speak of in tablets is not in the volume of space available
but in the overall experience. I can't say I've ever heard a "real user"
express how they wished they have more physical space on their tablet or
smartphone. It's a nice line item on a spec sheet to hold over your
competitors but how many users actually care?

~~~
lambda
You have never heard a "real user" (and remember, you and I are "real users"
as well; you don't stop being a real user just because you are technically
inclined) complain about having run out of space and having to clear off
space? About not being able to fit all of their music, photos, videos onto
their MP3 player, phone, or tablet?

I've certainly encountered that. And I can imagine people saying "hey, this
has 32 GB of space, my current device only has 16, this will allow me to fit
twice as much", without realizing that a full _half_ of that space is not
actually available.

~~~
recoiledsnake
You can easily drop in a SDXC card in the Surface if you need additional
storage, unlike the other main alternatives like the iPad and Nexus tablets.
You can load up any number of movies to take on a trip on microSD cards and
swap them in and out. What do you do on the other tablets without the Microsd
slot when you run out of storage?

