How to reinstall windows 8 on a preloaded asus zenbook

March 31, 2013 2:18 AM

I recently bought an asus zenbook UX32VD-R43317, and I would quite like to replace the hard drive in it, reinstalling windows in the process, but I don't seem to have any way of doing so.

The problem is that my machine did not come with any windows 8 media, and I don't think I can download windows 8 from microsoft (I tried to using this page but it would not work.)

My laptop has a recovery partition, and I have read a whole load of articles suggesting that when you get a laptop with preloaded windows, you should burn recovery discs right away. As far as I can see, there is no option to burn recovery discs or create .iso files on my machine. The software asus typically uses to burn recovery discs (maybe on windows 7 and earlier?), Asus AI Recovery Burner, is not installed on my machine, and it is not available for download for my model on Asus's website.

Amazingly, Asus's website says that it does not offer recovery media for windows 8 yet (I found that message by clicking on "Purchase recovery media" on this page). I have contacted asus but haven't received a reply yet, so I'd be grateful if anyone here had any ideas.

Is there any way for me to reinstall windows onto a new hard disk? I really don't want to download a torrent of windows 8. If all else fails, could I clone this hard disk onto the new one I want to install, or would that screw up windows 8?

Thanks a lot.

posted by theyexpectresults to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

You can "clone" the existing drive onto a new, bigger drive. There are quite a few products out there that do this - search for something like " notebook hard drive upgrade" to see some. You put your new drive in an external enclosure, attach it to a USB port and run the cloning software. When it's complete, move the new drive to the internal bay and you're good to go, and you've got a backup system all set in the form of the old drive.
posted by Right On Red at 5:04 AM on March 31, 2013

Forgot to say, no, you won't mess up Windows 8. The only concern would be passing the license"Authenticity" test when you boot with the new drive, but typically just swapping a hard drive doesn't cause a problem.
posted by Right On Red at 5:10 AM on March 31, 2013

What Right On Red said. I'm typing this on a 6-year-old Toshiba laptop that came with Windows XP installed. Although I run Ubuntu, I've kept the Windows partition around in case I ever need it. So far I've cloned it across two HDD upgrades with no ill effects. Being a geek of the (somewhat) old school, I do it with the dd utility, but I'm sure there are plenty of user-friendly alternatives if you don't like command lines. "windows", "clone", and "partition" are probably the magic google-words here; and here is a reasonable-looking round-up.

Disclaimer: I've never done this with Windows 8, so can't personally vouch that it will be as happy as Windows XP with this. But I don't see why not. Still, I'd do a little googling to make sure.

Also it's ludicrous that they don't provide recovery media but that just seems to be the norm these days. On the plus side, if you do the cloning and just stash the original HDD somewhere, that's effectively a recovery medium that you can re-clone onto your new drive whenever you need to reinstall.
posted by pont at 5:33 AM on March 31, 2013 [1 favorite]