[Windows 8 General] e.mote:
OP's system is an Atom with eMMC (not SSD) storage, and thus is both CPU and I/O constrained. The rules of traditional PCs wouldn't apply here. There are already reported perf issues with Win8 on Clover Trail devices.

System compression is no longer in vogue, because aside from the perf hit, most large-sized content (read: vids) is already optimally compressed, and further attempts would actually make them slightly larger due to overhead.

Windows, at least up to Win8, hasn't been optimized for space, and there are several ways to trim the fat. The simplest is to reduce or eliminate backups, crash dump, hibernation & swap files (you can't change paging file which is used for Metro). These will gain you multiple GBs. Removing built-in apps won't gain much, although you should remove all the bundleware you don't use.

Going more geek, WinSXS can grow substantially over time (it keeps backups of older versions), and if you use the system heavily, you can run DISM periodically to remove the backups. Google for more info on this.

Hardcore peeps will want to reclaim space from the recovery partition by offloading them to USB. First, get the partition map from Disk Mgmt. Here's the Ativ 500T's (it's slightly off, there should be only one rec partition):

http://www.extremetech.com/computin...tible-grossly-misrepresents-available-storage

A foreword: Re-partitioning/restoring was pretty straightforward for "old" Windows, since there are plenty of bootable partitioning & "rescue" programs. Win8 makes it much more of an adventure, since most Win8 boxes now have Secure Boot that locks out these 3rd-party boot tools. Theoretically SB can be disabled on x86, but in practice many of them can't (ATIV 500T reportedly can't). In short, you can actually brick your toy. (If it happens, please send a thack-you-velly-much note to MS for having made the world a safer place. Welcome ye to the new walled garden.)

From above partition map, you can theoretically reclaim 6GB by making a bootable USB key, removing the recovery partition, and merge them into the OBP (One Big Partition).

Potential complications:

. Note that the 500T uses GPT partitioning, not the old MBR format.

. I don't know if Disk Management will allow the deletion of the recovery partitions.

. Because the recovery partitions are in front of the OBP, merging partitions may require a complete backup/restore. Of course, a full backup is advisable regardless.

. The built-in recovery process may fail if it is hardcoded to restore to a certain partition number/location, as the partition map will be altered with the removal of the recovery partitions.

Suggestions:

. Download the free Partition Wizard (http://partitionwizard.com) and image it onto USB. See if you can boot with it. If you can't, Secure Boot is on, and you're limited to booting from either a Win8 ISO or from the built-in recovery.

. Find a Win8 32-bit (not 64-bit) bootable ISO from wherever, image it to USB, and try to boot with it. It has all the needed partitioning/recovery tools available (albeit primitive). If it can't boot, I would leave the partitions alone, as you'll have a brick if the built-in recovery fails.

Disclaimer: Aside from minimizing backups/swap/etc, the above is for geeks. As the saying goes, if you have to ask, the answer is no.

Moral of story: For the next Windows toy you buy, check beforehand to make sure Secure Boot can be disabled. It's not just about running other OS'es.

Edit: Someone has mentioned elsewhere that the USB boot order may default to SD card before USB, so if USB boot fails, check BIOS settings and/or try again with imaged SD card boot.

Recovery with installing standard Win8 ISO is actually not an option, as Samsung doesn't have drivers available for download for its Win8 tablets. You're limited to the recovery image (or a backup).

More Ativ 500T booting fun: http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/samsung/54208-samsung-ativ-smart-pc-stuck-bios-3-print.html