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Windows 8 clean install on new ssd?

ablelocks

I bought a new SSD for my laptop and i've swapped the drives, inserted a usb with a previous download of Windows 8 pro and booted from that but the install stopped as the product key i have is for my desktop.

Fair enough, so I try to buy a new download and product key only to get a message saying that it's not available for download in my country / region (on my windows 8 desktop, which may be the real reason for this message).

I called MS, only to be told that the only way to get windows 8 is to re-swap the drives (HDD has win 7 ultimate 64bit), download the upgrade assistant and purchase windows 8 direct from the laptop, save the download to usb, get product key and then swap drives and do the install. Fine, bit of hassle, but can be done.

Except the guy (customer service not a techie) couldn't confirm that this would absolutely work on the SSD - he thought it should, but he said there could be an issue because there's no previous version of windows on the SSD obviously.

Before I start over, should i do it this way and will it work?

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Overheal

I would take a moment, and compare the cost of the download from microsoft, with buying the 8 Pro upgrade disk from a brick and mortar shop. But yes, it should work, I've never had problems doing clean installs when fiddling with upgrade licenses but when doing so I've almost always had physical media. Only on the Windows 7 Tablet did I have to play with a USB copy, but that worked just fine on a formatted SSD. Your OEM Licenses adhere to a motherboard, not a disk drive. If you never had an OEM, and your 7 license is a full retail, that might be why its being weird like this, because its not attached to the motherboard necessarily so you need to run the upgrade assistant or an in-place upgrade at least once on the windows 7 license for the 8 license to adhere to that license. Afterward, you should be more than able to do without windows 7, for all purposes you will have converted your 7 ultimate license into a windows 8 license and should be able to perform clean installs with the 8 media thereafter.

ablelocks

Overheal wrote: »

I would take a moment, and compare the cost of the download from microsoft, with buying the 8 Pro upgrade disk from a brick and mortar shop. But yes, it should work, I've never had problems doing clean installs when fiddling with upgrade licenses but when doing so I've almost always had physical media. Only on the Windows 7 Tablet did I have to play with a USB copy, but that worked just fine on a formatted SSD. Your OEM Licenses adhere to a motherboard, not a disk drive. If you never had an OEM, and your 7 license is a full retail, that might be why its being weird like this, because its not attached to the motherboard necessarily so you need to run the upgrade assistant or an in-place upgrade at least once on the windows 7 license for the 8 license to adhere to that license. Afterward, you should be more than able to do without windows 7, for all purposes you will have converted your 7 ultimate license into a windows 8 license and should be able to perform clean installs with the 8 media thereafter.

that does make sense - I always thought that the licence attached to the hard drive.

i was just about to start the upgrade assistant on the win 7 hdd so i'll fire ahead and see how i get on.

thanks for the advice

ablelocks

ffs. just as well i ordered the back up disk. started the download process and got the following message :

Download did not complete successfully. The download task did not complete. The data necessary to complete this operation is not yet available.

no option to re-try, or go back. just a finish button.