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    Installing windows on SSD Question

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Invention, Jul 15, 2014.

  1. Invention

    Invention Notebook Guru

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    Hey guys I have not owned a laptop so I have a question about installing windows on SSD.

    I will buy a laptop which comes pre-installed with windows 8.1 on hard drive. If i want to install SSD, and take out the hard drive, how do i get the windows to go on SSD? Will I be given a CD with my laptop?

    I have installed SSD's in my desktop but for windows, (windows 7) I had a bootable CD so i just did a fresh install on the SSD. However, since my laptop will have windows 8.1 and no CD im guessing, I'm a bit confused as to go about that. Thank you.
     
    Invention, Jul 15, 2014
    #1
  2. alexhawker

    alexhawker Spent Gladiator

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    Most OEMs these days will charge more for the recovery DVD.

    You can probably download the Win 8.1 ISO and create a bootable USB with the MS tool (do this with your original Windows install, before installing the SSD, obviously).

    The product key should be embedded in the BIOS, so you shouldn't have to worry about activation at all.
     
    alexhawker, Jul 16, 2014
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  3. Pirx

    Pirx Notebook Virtuoso

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    There's no need to reinstall the OS unless you want to. The standard solution for this kind of situation is to simply image your current HD to an external drive (using one of a large number of either free or paid imaging tools), replace the HD with the SSD, and then restore the image back to the SSD. Takes only a few minutes of work and you're done.
     
    Pirx, Jul 17, 2014
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  4. JOSEA

    JOSEA NONE

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    Great advise ^^^ the only issue you may run into is some imaging (cloning?) programs will not allow you to restore an image from an HDD to a smaller capacity SSD, so research this first.
     
    JOSEA, Jul 17, 2014
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  5. tijo

    tijo Sacred Blame

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    Macrium Reflect is capable of cloning to smaller drives as long as space is sufficient and is alignment aware as well, so you shouldn't have any problems with that tool and best of all, it's free.
     
    tijo, Jul 17, 2014
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