Windows 8.1 Update can be installed on devices with small drives, thanks to a new technology developed by Microsoft for this new version of the operating system.
The new installation option, which is simply called Windows Image Boot (WIMBoot), is specifically designed to install on UEFI devices and SSDs with capacities up to 16 GB, so users still have enough storage space for their files and applications.
Essentially, WIMBoot, which is available on all Windows 8.1 Update storage drives, no longer extracts all the files from an image file, but instead uses a file point to keep everything compressed in the original WIM. This way, users have the same folder structure, but underneath all the files are compressed, which helps save space on your device.
The above process could only be done manually until now and was usually a bit more complicated, but in the end, you could end up with 12 GB of free space on a 16 GB drive.
“Essentially, you would copy the WIM file to a separate partition on the disk that looks like an “image” (just like you would for an operating system recovery image), and then use DISM to create the WIM file from the files in the operating system folder on the C: drive. Windows recognizes this (WIM) file and knows how to boot the operating system,” Microsoft explains.
On a 16GB drive, Windows 8.1 typically requires up to 9GB, leaving around 7GB available to users, which is plenty of space for storing files and installing apps. Using the new WIMBoot system, on the other hand, installing Windows could require around 3GB, leaving you with around 12GB of free disk space.
And that's not the only advantage of the WIM file. Microsoft says it can also be used as a repair-recovery image in case your Windows installation crashes and you need to repair it quickly.
Redmond says that more tablet devices pre-configured to use WIMBoot will hit the market in the coming months, in an effort to provide users with drives with enough storage capacity for files and applications.
At this point we remind you that a 32 GB Surface tablet 2 has only 18 GB of free space, while the 64 GB model comes with 47 GB of available disk space.
