Windows 7 preinstalled through downgrade rights

When I ordered my T440s in March of this year I had the option of ordering it with either Windows 7 Professional or Windows 8  Prof or Windows 8.1 Professional in addition to the regular version of Win8.  Each of the Prof. versions cost $50 more.
I had read somewhere that if I ordered it with Win7 Prof. that I could at some time later install Windows 8 Prof. since I was getting Win7 through downgrade rights.  I paid $50 extra to get Win7 Professional rather than the standard version of Win8.
I just ran a configuration for a T440s today and noticed that the choices of operating system shows two Windows 7 options. Both cost $50.  One is listed as Win7 while the other is listed as Win7 through downgrade rights.  There was no two choices in March and even back then I had read that ordering Win7 was through downgrade.
So my questions are:
1) can I switch to Win8 Professional without any additional cost as I had understood?
2) if so how do I change over to Win8 Professional?  I created a set of recovery disc for win7 but I don't know if it contains Win8 Prof.
part of the reason I'm asking now (more immediately) is that I had ordered the 500GB HDD with OPAL capability on it with the intention of implementing hardware encryption.  I'm having problems finding any documentation or instructions on how to implement the hardware encryption (thanks a lot Lenovo) AND in searching the Internet it "appears" that I would need a version of Windows 8 to accomplish this as there is feature called edrive that is in Windows 8 (but not in Win7) that is required.  (the only option for win7 laptops would be to utilize some third party software like WinMagic... which means it will cost me more money).
If it is true (that I need Win8) then I need to migrate to Win8 now, even before I really use this laptop. Which is why I'm asking about my "right" to migrate to Win8 Prof and how I would go about doing so.
thanks.

Hi John_B,
please take a look at this thread in the W seies board, hopefully it will help answer your question.
The W7 key is embedded in the Lenovo factory image so you will need to create recovery discs.
Andy  ______________________________________
Please remember to come back and mark the post that you feel solved your question as the solution, it earns the member + points
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    Hi zilla,
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    Andy  ______________________________________
    Please remember to come back and mark the post that you feel solved your question as the solution, it earns the member + points
    Did you find a post helpfull? You can thank the member by clicking on the star to the left awarding them Kudos Please add your type, model number and OS to your signature, it helps to help you. Forum Search Option T430 2347-G7U W8 x64, Yoga 10 HD+, Tablet 1838-2BG, T61p 6460-67G W7 x64, T43p 2668-G2G XP, T23 2647-9LG XP, plus a few more. FYI Unsolicited Personal Messages will be ignored.
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    Andy  ______________________________________
    Please remember to come back and mark the post that you feel solved your question as the solution, it earns the member + points
    Did you find a post helpfull? You can thank the member by clicking on the star to the left awarding them Kudos Please add your type, model number and OS to your signature, it helps to help you. Forum Search Option T430 2347-G7U W8 x64, Yoga 10 HD+, Tablet 1838-2BG, T61p 6460-67G W7 x64, T43p 2668-G2G XP, T23 2647-9LG XP, plus a few more. FYI Unsolicited Personal Messages will be ignored.
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