Upgrading to windows 8 on new hard drive

[trow100]

Recently my hard drive crashed and I lost everything. Not a huge deal , just frustrating and time consuming. It had some bad sectors and got a few viruses I believe and crashed. I formatted the HD and reinstalled windows 7. I ordered a new HD in the mean time while trying to figure out what I was going to do, and not knowing if mine was useable anymore. As of now I have an activated windows 7 on my old HD that crashed and a non activated windows 7(did not enter the product key at install). I would like to have my new HD be the activated and fully useable HD. If I purchase a Windows 8 pro upgrade student version for $70, will I be able to install it on the new HD that is not activated and be able to activate windows 8 when I install it? Ideally I want the new HD to be the used one and old HD only as backup/extra space.

 

[trow100]

when the new drive comes install it and disconnect all other drives. Install 7 (unactivated) then upgrade to 8. then reconnect all other drives.

Let me rephrase the question, will the upgrade of windows 8 work on the non activated OS on the new hard drive, and will I then have a activated windows 8 install?

 

[dodger46]

Simply install W8 to your new drive with no other drives installed, install to pure, unadulterated Unallocated Space (ie no partitions).
"Boot from your Installation disk, when you get to the screen 'Where do you want to install Windows' choose 'Drive options (Advanced)', select each partition in turn and delete them, so you end up with only Unallocated Space. Continue to install Windows on this space without formatting or creating any partitions, this will ensure a 'clean' install and allow Windows to create a System Reserved partition (350Mb).
To activate Windows, if you used an upgrade disk, simply leave the installation disk in place and Refresh your PC by typing 'Refresh' at your Start Screen, and from Settings select Refresh your PC. Once completed your Windows will be activated.
(M'soft knows you had a W7 installed on this machine, it links Mobo S/N with Product Key...)"