Upgrade from stock HDD to SSD in Lenovo u430 Laptop

[stat30fbliss]

I am looking to upgrade my stock 500GB HDD with a 120GB SSD. My stock HDD has come with a few Manufacturer partitions mainly for recovery, drivers, etc. My goal is to make a Recovery Image of my current set up, and load that image in after i install the new SSD.

Considering all of the partitions that I will be imaging, will there be any issues I should anticipate when trying to load that Image into a new SSD. I have checked, and space should not be an issue.

I would like to avoid having to purchase another copy of Windows just to load onto this new SSD, though I would love a vanilla install without all of the Crapware that came with the machine.

This will be the first time I have done a System Image backup and reload. Also, this laptop is technically an Ultrabook, and does not have a disk drive. Will I be able to load the system backup onto a bootable USB stick and load it from there on boot?

Any other issues or suggestions I should keep in mind?

 

[ronintexas]

I would suggest making a bootable USB stick, installing the OS on the SSD (installed as the only drive), then using a USB enclosure, copy the files you need to the SSD. That way, you miss out on all the bloatware, and the installation is optimized for the SSD.

BTW - You can save a lot of space on the SSD by having an external drive to store your large files and files you don't access much.

 

[stat30fbliss]

I would suggest making a bootable USB stick, installing the OS on the SSD (installed as the only drive), then using a USB enclosure, copy the files you need to the SSD. That way, you miss out on all the bloatware, and the installation is optimized for the SSD.

BTW - You can save a lot of space on the SSD by having an external drive to store your large files and files you don't access much.

Although I have an ISO of Windows 8 lying around I can install onto the PC, how would I do that without having to purchase a new copy of Windows for that install. Would the product key for this model work to activate a fresh & clean install of Windows 8?

 

[popatim]

AS long as its the same version yes (home, pro, ultimate...)