Installing Windows 8 on a different drive???

I have a Lenovo Y400 that came with Windows 8. Windows was installed on the HDD though and I wanted to install it on the mSATA SSD. I have the System restore including OS installation disks from Lenovo. I wiped the hard drives and tried using those disks to re-install, except that it doesn't give an option on which drive to install to. It just re-installed to the HDD. I wiped again and tested with a Windows 7 installation disk I had and it installed just like I wanted on the SSD. After finding no other alternative I downloaded a Windows 8 iso file and did a clean install using a UEFI bootable USB drive. It installed to the SSD just as I wanted. I expected that since the computer came with Windows 8 pre-installed and I'd read that any new installation 'sees' the embedded product key that that was the end of it. Of course it couldn't be that simple. Windows can't be activated. I used BelarcAdviser and found the product key and used slmgr.vbs /ipk <product key> and it said that was successful but it still won't activate.
Any suggestions on what to do now? I'm considering wiping, pulling the HDD and trying to reinstall with the Lenovo disks. Maybe if the HDD isn't there it will install to the SSD???? I hate to try that after getting this far.

I think your plan is a good one. I would have pulled the hard drive right from the beginning or used cloning software (latest acronis) to clone the hard drive to the ssd.
But first try to activate over the phone. Drop down to dos and type "slui 4" without the quotes to trigger the activation dialog.

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To the goddesses of this community:
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Installing Windows 8 on a different drive???

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