Initial set up

[sheryltoo]

I already set up my tablet and was surprised at how much storage got used so I'm wondering if I did something wrong.
I can't exactly remember everything I did but it was asking me something about where I wanted back up from or restore from. I'm not sure if I said the tablet. If I did, would that have used up a lot of my storage?
I really like this tablet but I'm concerned about space so I'm returning it for the 32gb tablet and want to be sure I don't set it up wrong.

 

[leeshor]

You didn't say anything about how much space was used, but my guess is that while it may have been a shock it was probably normal. It wasn't necessary to return it if you really thought you did something wrong. You could have just done a factory reset, or maybe you did purchase one with insufficient storage.

 

[Frederuco]

Sheryl, it all depends on how many apps you have, and how big they are for the restoring.

One thing that can be a bit confusing about these devices, 16 GB is the total storage. BUT, that is 16,000,000,000 bytes. Computers and tech devices speak in binary, not decimals. So the conversions are factors of 1024 (2[SUP]8[/SUP]=1024) instead of 1000 when going from bytes - KB - MB - GB. Running the conversions you are starting with 14.9 GB. (This is the same reason that 1 TB hard drives format to 931 GB).

Next, some of that is partitioned for some necessary usage for the OS:
Cache
Recovery
System
Data

The Data is the portion in the /sdcard/ directory. Each device is partitioned differently depending on how much room the OEM thinks it will need for the software to run well, as well as some extra for future expansion in case the next version of Android takes up more disk space.

Whatever is left over is what you get to use. On average, you will probably only get about 12 - 12.5 GB of usable storage on a 16 GB Android device. A 32 GB tablet, you will probably have 26-27 GB of usable storage. This is an average, some devices may have more used in the system partition depending on what it takes to make it run. I know the Note has some multi-taksing abilities, so that may take up more space.

I found the app DiskUsage is very good to help figure out what is using space. It has a graphical user interface to show what folders on your device are taking up the most space.

This is much better than Windows RT. The 32 GB tablet only ends up with about 16 GB after the OS is installed.

 

[sheryltoo]

Thanks for explaining all that Frederuco. I actually am well aware of how much space you end up with Windows RT since the first tablet I bought was Windows Surface tablet with Windows rt. I returned it because after doing some updates, I only had 10gbs of space left. I see a man from California is suing Microsoft because they advertise the tablet has 32gbs of space but nearly half of that is used on the operating system. That's why I returned mine.
I'm not really sure how much space I'll need on my tablet but I was afraid I'd run out of space too quickly if I kept the 16gb tablet. I ended up restoring the tablet and before adding anything to it, I only had just under 12gbs. I exchanged it for the 32gb version.
Just wanted to have more of a cushion.

 

[J515OP]

Hi Sheryl,

As Frederuco stated, the OS uses up some of the storage space on all devices. The lawsuit is likely frivolous because all devices are advertised with the total storage capacity not including the space taken up by the OS. Not Apple, nor Windows, nor Android gives you the full size of the drive for your own use. One great thing about the Surface RT is that they include a microSD card slot for essentially unlimited additional storage since you can swap microSD cards at will to meet your storage needs.

If storage is a concern for you, you can start by buying the largest capacity available for a device and then also getting a device that has a microSD slot for expanded storage (like the Note 10.1). In reality most people do not run up against their storage limits because they are not using their tablets for their ultimate storage and 16GB+ (12+ after accounting for the OS) is a lot just for apps. You should have a cloud service or a storage drive if you have things like thousands of songs, movies, pictures etc. to store and only access those you need via the tablet and physically sync those that are important to have without a wifi connection to the tablet.

 

[sheryltoo]

Thanks. I probably had enough space but I'm so use to all the storage that comes on a pc so I just wanted a little more internal storage on my tablet. I really don't plan on storing tons of files on it or plan on putting a lot of music on it. I already own a 16gb, 32gb, and 64gb, micro sd card so I think I'm covered. I'm not sure how much I'll use the video feature but I know videos can be large so I'm covering all bases.