Friend is getting an SSD and doesn't want to have to buy a new copy of windows to put onto it
so he is planning on just cloning his harddrive to the SSD.

What is the best free software to accomplish this goal?

unless there is a way to get free windows i'm not aware of?

clonezilla.

/edit
hardware change may make it not validate though.
so you will still have to call micro$hit.

This post was edited by King Atrhur on May 3 2017 10:39pm

What version of Windows does your friend have?

/e AIDA64 can get you the CD key for the version of Windows that you have. Then you can just download the "free" ISO for that version of Windows, and burn it to a DVD or put it on a bootable USB stick.

This post was edited by Ghot on May 3 2017 10:54pm

ProduKey can also get the key for you

For my Acer laptop i used the included software on the laptop. I created a bootable full recovery USB and when I put in my blank SSD and booted up, it installed everything fresh including the stock drivers.

If you plan to use the old drive as storage and back up, make sure you have the proper partitioning and space. I used MiniTool Partition software to change up my HDD so it back up properly using the Windows recovery.