Upgrade HD to SSD - Windows 8

I have a Samsung NP350V5C-T02US notebook I purchased not to long ago.
I would like to upgrade to a SSD to improve performance.
Where can I get install media for Windows 8, so I can reinstall the operating system on my new SSD?
I tried Samsung live chat but they didn't have a clue, apparently my laptop requires special training...

 

Unfortunately Samsung does not provide install media with their Win8 laptops, and Microsoft does not provide a public download option as they do with Win7. If you have a MSDN/TechNet subscription you can download Win8 ISOs from here.

Note: Please do not ask about or discuss illegal download options in this forum. It is strictly against our forum rules and we have to delete such posts.

Otherwise you have two options, both involve using Recovery (F4) on your PC:

1) Create a backup of the Factory Image to a 32GB USB stick and select the make bootable option. This turns the USB stick into a self-contained, bootable Recovery with the factory image for your PC. After installing the new SSD, you boot this USB stick and have it re-partition the drive and install everything. Then keep the USB stick safe for future use. I recommend doing this regardless.

2) Install the new SSD in an external USB enclosure and use the Copy Disk function in Recovery to clone everything from your current HDD to the new drive. Then swap them afterwards. There is discussion about it in the 2013 Series 7 Owners Lounge, starting here. Keep reading from that post for further advice.

So you have several options. Keep us posted on your progress

 

Well i'm not crazy about either of those options... but I guess they'll have to do.

What would I do if my hard drive got fried somehow? I wouldn't be able to access the recovery partitions.

 

I know, it would be great if Samsung provided installation media with their laptops. They used to, but unfortunately they stopped doing it. Maybe it's part of their license deal with Microsoft, I don't know.

That said, many vendors have been doing this for years, delivering only a Recovery on the HDD. You're supposed to make a backup of that, in case you fry your disk. That's what those features are for which I mentioned above. Otherwise Samsung will re-image your drive for a fee (not free, but less than a Win8 license).

If you're a student (and have an ID to prove it) you may be able to get a Win8 download from Microsoft Dreamspark. I didn't know about this until I saw CubaLIbre's post here earlier today.

 

It's possible that the reinstall feature takes a LOT of time? Like A LOT! It's been like more than 30minutes and it's only 15%, i selected to fully remove everything. Not refresh feature, the other one, REINSTALL!

 

Did you select Just remove my files or Fully clean the drive? Fully clean the drive wipes all the data so it's unrecoverable. Which takes a LONG time.

In other news, my friend gave me a Windows 8 ISO he got off MSDN I think. The sha1 hash checks out. So I'm going to go dig up an old hard drive I can stick in my laptop and see how reinstalling with that goes.

 

@juampiursic: Yes, as Techdoodz wrote, it sounds like you selected the Remove everything and reinstall Windows function, not the Refreshyour PC without affecting your files function. I included that screenshot above to highlight the correct function.

Still, I don't know why it takes so long. As I recall, a full factory restore in Recovery doesn't take all that long...

 

The problem that I found with the Samsung Recovery (though I did not try to run it from a usb stick using factory image) was that if you have a 1 TB HD that you want to copy to a smaller SSD, the utility will not permit this complaining that the target drive is smaller than the source drive.