upgrade laptop to Win 8, and install SSD at the same time

champ222

champ222

champ222

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Hi All

quick question:

I'm planning to upgrade to windows 8 on my dads laptop, and i also want to upgrade to a new SSD.

in order to perform the upgrade with the £25 deal, i am assuming the current OS will need to be installed when i pop in the windows 8 disc (created from the download), but if i pop the new SSD in and insert the windows 8 disk, it wont see the current OS, as it wont be on the drive, therefore i wont be eligable to upgrade?

so it seems the only way i can do this is change to the new SSD, put the current vista on it, then run the windows 8 upgrade thus making me eligable as vista is installed. I can then do a fresh install using the windows 8 upgrade tool.

Does this sound right?

which is the easiest way to do this? i cannot attach two drives to the laptop at the same time, so i cant clone as such, but could i create a system image to a portable hdd, then boot with a rescue disc and resore the vista image to the new ssd?

Or could i take the hdd out of the laptop, connect that and the new ssd to my desktop, and clone the hdd to the ssd from there?

I hope you guys can tell what i'm on about?

Thanks in advance for any assistance!
 
Yep simplest way is to make the image, doesn't really matter whether it's to an external hdd or you do it with both disks out of the laptop. Macrium Reflect is good if you don't already have something.

Put the SSD with Vista into the laptop and boot to Windows. Go to the MS Store and get your upgrade (it will allow you to save Windows 8 to DVD or USB for future use), then you'll be able to either upgrade your Vista to 8 (keeping documents and settings if you have SP1) or a "Keep nothing" which will do a clean install.
 
Sounds like a plan! Thanks Chileanllama.

i was looking into macrium reflect, and i saw some tutorials for it. It looked to me like there was a clone disc option, that looked ideal except the tutorial suggested that i select the disc to clone, then select the disc to clone to, suggesting that they would need to both be connected at the same time. I have no SATA to USB adapter.

There is also an option to create an image of a drive, which is what i'd be looking to do i guess, then pop that on a portable hdd, then create a rescue cd (Macrium free creates a linux one right?) then boot that and restore my image to the SSD?

does that sound about right?
 
Macrium allows you to create a WinPE bootable disk.

If you do the disks outside of the machine you'll be able to clone one directly to the other. If you do it from the laptop to an external hdd, you'll need to do it as an image, then restore the image to the SSD.

One thing to note, it's almost certain that if you ever want to reinstall the Windows 8 Upgrade you will need to start from having Vista again. I don't know if your father has the original Vista DVDs or not, but it might be wise to keep a copy of the image or the original hdd you're removing in case you ever need to reinstall it again in the future (i.e. if your SSD fails and need to start again).

Good luck.
 
I might just clone one to the other using my desktop, it sounds like less hassle.

ChileanLlama said:
One thing to note, it's almost certain that if you ever want to reinstall the Windows 8 Upgrade you will need to start from having Vista again. I don't know if your father has the original Vista DVDs or not, but it might be wise to keep a copy of the image or the original hdd you're removing in case you ever need to reinstall it again in the future (i.e. if your SSD fails and need to start again).
Click to expand...

I did think about this... I'm assuming win 8 will have the same image creation and backup options that Windows 7 has. If so, i'll take an image at fresh install and use that for the future. Failing that ive got a vista disk around somewhere i think.

Thanks again for your help
 
Win8 has two new features reset and refresh. So would only need. To install from cpscratch on a new computer/HDD or if windows has utter failure.
 
champ222 said:
I might just clone one to the other using my desktop, it sounds like less hassle.



I did think about this... I'm assuming win 8 will have the same image creation and backup options that Windows 7 has. If so, i'll take an image at fresh install and use that for the future. Failing that ive got a vista disk around somewhere i think.

Thanks again for your help
Click to expand...

You're welcome, it has better features than Windows 7 as Glaucus has mentioned, and you could always take another Reflect image after the upgrade as well.

It sounds like you will be covered for everything :)
 
i'm confused now, i contacted ms support and was asking the following

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You are now chatting with 'Steven M'.

Steven M: Thank you for contacting Microsoft Store Chat! How can I help you today?

You: was wondering i have win7 home premium if i buy windows 8 pro can i leave my windows 7 as it is one one hard drive, then install a fresh copy of win8 pro onto a new hard drive leaving me with both copies of the operating systems on ?

Steven M: I understand what you are asking

Steven M: Do you mean Windows 8 upgrade? or full version?

You: on your site it called windows 8 pro @ £49.99

Steven M: Yes, that is the upgrade

Steven M: the full version will be release very soon

Steven M: So, in conclusion, you will need to upgrade your Windows 7 to 8, and after you can install Windows 7 on a different hard drive

can someon who knows more than msoft support answer this please . tnx
 
Of course you can't do what you suggest.
Upgrade is an upgrade to the. License. You can't use both your win7 and the upgrade at the same time. If you use the upgrade you loses win7. Same as always happened.

As he said you will need the w8 oem which is the new retail.
 
champ222 said:
Hi All
but could i create a system image to a portable hdd, then boot with a rescue disc and resore the vista image to the new ssd?
Click to expand...

Yes. Vista has a built-in disk image & restore utility. No need to use additional software.
 
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