Okay, bought new Win8 discs. Bought new Samsung 250GB SSD.
Put SSD in laptop, works. Installed Win8, works.
Win8 is not 'activated', because the discs I purchased appear to be for
an upgrade, not a clean installation, according to the popup when typing
in the activation key.
I asked specifically that question at Best Buy when buying the
discs--can I put a NEW HD in my laptop, NO CLONING and install this Win8
set? They said yes. There's nothing on the packaging that says
'upgrade'. Not that it matters, but I suspect my solution is illegal, so
I'm staking out the moral high ground now.
I don't want to clone anything from the old drive to the new one. I have
the cables, but they (the drives) are different capacities, and last
time I tried that it all went bad. I also don't want to risk any malware
going from the old drive to the new one.
I'm inclined to say screw it and just use the Win8 on the laptop in its
unactivated state--it seems to work fine. Am I risking jail time or
anything else awful? I assume I cannot return the Win8 set to Best Buy
and buy the 'right' set.
On a side note, there are no Win8 video drivers on Dell's website for an
E6400, and the display randomly shuts off, but then it did that on the
old HD, too, but only after I installed Win8.
This is why I avoid IT stuff on my own. Is the 'right' solution to clone
the old drive, and if so, can any one recommend a web tutorial written
as if for a five year-old, but that is also comprehensive? I'd need to
clone an 80 GB drive to a 250 GB SSD, and I want the bare minimum
necessary to be kosher with those Redmond bastages.
And Dell sucks. All hail Lenovo. This crap never happened on our Lenovo
machines.
Scott
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