G53JW-A1 + Windows 8

Hi, I'm fairly new to upgrading systems and/or installing new operating softwares. In the recent months I've noticed how fast Windows 8 is and am seriously loving the boot times on slow laptops.
Though my laptop (ASUS G53JW-A1) isn't slow while operating but the start up itself is a long process. So finally, I think I'm going to upgrade to W8 as soon as possible. Unfortunately, there a few things that I would like cleared up.

I couldn't find this out myself, but I tend to use the Function (fn) keys quite a bit. It'd be a shame if Asus has performed little to no upgrades on the drivers that control it in W8

I saw W8 has new mouse gestures, do they come preloaded with the OS or again, does Asus release their own ones?

When I ordered my laptop from GentechPC, I had requested for recovery DVDs and by being slightly irresponsible, I haven't seen them since unpacking the laptop (so that'd be since nearly two years). Does the "hidden" drive get overwritten with Windows 8 once I install it? I don't know how to explain this but I was told that there is a partitioned drive that has W7 installed, should I ever have any problems with my current installation. This question is a bit hard to phrase, as I might know the answer to it myself, but dont have the confidence to go ahead with it.

Oh and lastly, is it better to reformat and then install or just simply upgrade my inserting the disc?

I understand my questions aren't very clear but there's some sort of mental block that's making me paranoid about the data on all my drives.I also haven't figured out what files I'll need and I wont and am considering making an image of all 3 drives (opinions on this are welcome).

Any help is appreciated,
Bhavz

Bhavz Newbie

Chastity Company Representative