Clone HDD to USB to SSD?

I bought a new computer (ASUS G551JM) with a hard disk drive (1TB 7200 RPM), but I want to transfer the OS (and everything else) onto my Samsung EVO 840 (500GB). However, when I purchased the SSD from Samsung, I did not purchase the laptop kit.

I'm wondering whether I can clone the OS from the hard disk drive onto my SanDisk Extreme USB 3.0 (32GB), and then onto the SSD.

My ultimate goals are to save $120 by not buying another copy of Windows 8.1 and to retain all the pre-installed drivers and software from ASUS.

2 Answers

I've used an USB 3.0 to SATA adapter to connect the SSD to my laptop:

(example, not the one I used).

Now I used EaseUS Partition Manager to clone the HDD to the SSD. When this is finished I removed the HDD from my Laptop and added the SSD.

Now you can use the SSD and put the HDD into an external USB3.0 HDD enclosure.

If no one suggest you anything better you always can try to use Windows backup. To be honest never tried it for Windows 8.1, but theoretically should work (at least there is no risk to try it)