How to make a copy of a disc with licensed Windows 8?

Question

Windows

I want to upgrade the HDD to a larger one. The current disk has a separate partition with the Windows installer and other useful utilities from the laptop manufacturer.
Question: is it possible to copy this partition to a new HDD without losing functionality and without losing the ability to activate the installed Windows?
Has anyone done this, please?

Answer 1

In general, this is possible. I don't know about software. Probably some kind of Acronis utility. But at one time I did it using a hardware two-disk hard drive docking station with support for creating duplicates. The remaining free space can be created in a new partition.

Answer 2

Of course you can. If you want to keep the partition structure on the new disk, as on the previous one, then just clone the entire disk - current cloners (for example, Norton Ghost or Acronis TI) can adjust the partition sizes in proportion to the increased total capacity.
Suppose, at the same time, the system (or any other) partition has grown so much that you do not need it (say, it has become twice as large) - then run a utility for working with partitions from some instrumental recovery LiveDVD / LiveUSB (say, Acronis DD or Paragon HDM) and bring it to a size that is convenient for you, and attach the freed disk space to another nearest partition, and all this without losing information.
But to be honest, I do not see the point in constantly dragging this recovery partition around with me. Yes, there is a licensed system, but restoring from it brings the system to an infant state - all the software you personally installed and all your settings will be lost. It would be more correct to create a backup copy of the system partition using the same Nortion Ghost or Acronis TI (of course, after installing all user software and making all the settings, removing unnecessary and testing performance) and store it on a third-party medium, and not on the same one that is being backed up ( and can die - and then how will you get your reserve?). At the same time, an extra bonus - 15 ... 20 GB of disk will be freed.