The Pro version of Windows 8 is an operating system that takes up a fair bit of disk space. That is not much of a problem for traditional desktops and laptops, but this is a limitation that is affecting Surface Pro line up of tablets, particularly the 64GB version of the slate.
We already reported the latest on the rumored available capacity of Surface Pro a couple of days back, and the word was that pre-installed software took up to 45 GB on the tablet leaving only 83 GB for use, which is pretty much in line with what you get on a laptop or ultrabook.
One point of interest was how much did pre-installed software take up on the 64GB version of the slate.
The folks over at The Verge took the Surface Pro storage situation for a spin and found out that indeed a similar situation surrounds the 64GB version — 41 GB are system reserved with only 23 GB of free storage available for users to, um, use.
So essentially the 64GB version of Surface Pro will hit store shelves with less than half the storage capacity available for use.
Microsoft faced a similar conundrum with the 32GB version of Surface RT also offering around half the advertised storage capacity out of the box. The company promptly updated the Surface website with this fact soon after launch.
Still the good news is that users will apparently be able to gain more storage on the device by creating a backup bootable USB and the deleting the included recovery partition on the tablet.
Furthermore, the available space can also be extended by connecting external drives using the included USB 3.0 port, or (very helpfully) by slotting in microSDXC cards.
