W530 - Replacing HDD w/ SSD - Installing Windows 8

Hi All,
My W530 will arrive next week and I'm pretty new to upgrading it myself, so I'm sorry if this sounds repeatative.
Windows 8 Pro 64
500GB HDD 7200rpm
I have already purchased the Samsung 830 256GB SSD and plan to replace the HDD with it. Also, already purchased an adapter for the optical drive for my HDD to go in. No questions regarding that.
My questions deal with installing Windows 8 Pro 64 onto the SSD. Most of the articles I have read talk about Windows 7, so I'm not sure if there is a difference.
Questions:
- Do I do a clean install or create a factory backup with the one installed on my HDD?
- Where do I get a clean install for Windows 8?
- If I do a backup, do I put the backup on disks or usb drive? I've read some forums that say Windows 8 can't be put on disks?
- Any step-by-step guides for Windows 8 that people have seen?
Like I said, I'm pretty new to this and want to do it right.
Thanks!
Solved!
Go to Solution.

I'm not from Lenovo, and still sorting this myself...
3: here's the procedure for making recovery media: Methodology to create Recovery Media and reload a Lenovo system with Microsoft Windows 8 preload
It wants a USB flash drive as the target.  Recovery media gets you back to the as-shipped, right out of the box state.
Backup and restore are a different deal.  That gets you back to the state of the machine when the backup was taken.  Backups can be stored on HDD or other external media, and on CD/DVD media (according to the options offered, anyway) but that would take a whole bunch of optical disks.
One uses the oddly-named Windows 7 File recovery tools to save the backup image and create a repair CD/DVD that contains the actual recovery tools.  I've tested this myself on an upated 7->8 machine.  Burned a repair CD and saved a full drive image to external USB HDD.  Restored to a new HDD and all was in place and working.
As I said, I'm still sorting this, so please double (triple!) check anything I've said before doing anything non-reversible.
Z.
The large print: please read the Community Participation Rules before posting. Include as much information as possible: model, machine type, operating system, and a descriptive subject line. Do not include personal information: serial number, telephone number, email address, etc.  The fine print: I do not work for, nor do I speak for Lenovo. Unsolicited private messages will be ignored. ... GeezBlog
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