Things to do before clean Win10 install.

I've been having a few issues with my laptop (mainly a dead CD drive that I'm also planning to replace) so I've decided to buy a new HD (the exitsting one is healthy at the moment) and try a clean install of win 10 keeping my existing HD in reserve for now. If things go well I'll stick it in an external enclosure later.

Will I need my Windows activation key and if so where/how do I find it?

Are there any pitfalls I should be aware of?

If you have already updated to Win 10 then the laptop will be registered and all you need to do is skip the two points where it asks for a key and at the end it will automatically validate

If you want belt and braces then you can use software like this to extract your Win 10 key.

In reply to a post by Oldjim:

If you have already updated to Win 10

No I'm stiull Win8.1 and will lleave that on the old HD. One of the things I wondered about was, what if I put my old HD back will it still work as normal?

I believe that if you do a clean install using the Win8 key it will work http://www.howtogeek.com/224342/how-to-clean-install...
However once you have used the Win 8 key for Win 10 I don't believe that you can go back to Win 8

In reply to a post by ian72:

If you want belt and braces then you can use software like this to extract your Win 10 key.

Thanks v.much. I'd already got it on my system but didn't realise it offered this,
Microsoft - Windows 8.1 (x64) 00179-60488-xxxxx (Key: xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx)

Now to decide about whether to go ssd, hybrid or standard hmmmm...

In reply to a post by Oldjim:

However once you have used the Win 8 key for Win 10 I don't believe that you can go back to Win 8

You think that MS would actively cripple my OS after all the installed hardware would be no different to that expected by Windows as it booted. Is part ot every boot process a 'call home' to see if everything is OK.

checking - I was wrong - you can http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/windows/how-downgr...

Now to decide about whether to go ssd, hybrid or standard hmmmm...

SSD, I bought one recently 500gb Crucial MX200, for £130, and I love the speed.

In reply to a post by longedge:

In reply to a post by ian72:

If you want belt and braces then you can use software like this to extract your Win 10 key.

Thanks v.much. I'd already got it on my system but didn't realise it offered this,
Microsoft - Windows 8.1 (x64) 00179-60488-xxxxx (Key: xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx)

Now to decide about whether to go ssd, hybrid or standard hmmmm...

Go SSD, you will absolutely not regret it when you see the speed things respond.