Windows 8 replace hdd.

[Pellusen]

Hi guys!

A friend bought a HP Desktop computer with preinstalled Win8. I recommended him to buy a SSD and install it as the system disk.

The preinstalled Win8 copy seems to be somehow linked with the hardware cause i cant install it on the SSD, just says something like "driver not recognized, harddrive smaller than anticipated".

How do i get the Win8 to accept the new HDD?

Any suggestions how to solve this?

Thanks in advance!

Cheers!

[ChrisT]

Hello,
What is the Model Number and/or Product number of the Desktop?

There could be 2 issues here:
- The SSD is too small to install Window 8. Win8 claims to only require 20 GB so I doubt that is the problem.
- The Win8 package does not include the drivers for the SSD. If you are using an HP image to install Win8, the SSD drivers will likely not be included so the install won't work.

There may be a way to download Win8 as a standalone through the Microsoft website but to get the CD-key you may have to contact Microsoft directly and explain the situation.

[Pellusen]

Hi!

Thanks for the reply!

Here´s the info:

Produkt No. D2K65EA#UUW

Model No. p6-2462eo

Size of SSD disk: 120gb

Regards,

Per Löfberg

[Cloud_Strider]

In some cases, the recovery disks will not install to a drive that is significantly smaller than the original.  This is oftentimes the case with a SSD as they are smaller to keep the price from getting too high. 

With that said, a lot of users have had success with cloning the original HDD image to a SSD as most disk cloning programs can resize as needed to fit the new drive. 

This guide gives an overview of how this process should work.  The guide is written for Windows 7, but it should be the same for a Windows 8 system.