Asus S400CA

Sorry I am posting this as a professional!:

First of all, my client has got a ASUS S400CA.

She needed a new disk in her system as the old disk was clicking a lot, but I forgot to make Recovery Media, and the product key I cannot get to (it is Windows 8, and the key is embedded in the UEFI.) I rang Asus and they said the only thing I can do is to buy Recovery Media for £42!
The old disk is in my Linux system, and it is still readable! Is there a way I can copy the files from the Recovery Partition to a USB drive and then boot from that?

 

Have you tried cloning the old HDD to the new HDD, since you can still read it?

If you can't get the HDD cloned or at least the recovery partition, try installing from a Windows 8 disc/USB. When you run a Windows 8 installation disc/USB drive, it will automatically detect the product key in the UEFI and activate with that embedded product key.

 

Cloning UEFI/GPT drives is not like the old days. Most software out there can't do it. The only one I've used successfully is Macrium. However, booting into the OS before the clone is a prerequisite to creating boot media for the cloning process. If you try to clone by disabling Secure Boot and enabling Legacy support, the new drive normally will not boot.

Retail or OEM copies of Win8 normally do not install, much less activate with manufacturer license keys. Your best bet is to clone that drive somehow, or get the original software from Asus for that exact machine.

 

If the disk wasn't clicking, cloning would be an option, but if it fails half way through then I'm stuck!
Thankyou for your inputs, I have two choices realistically:
Find someone with a W8 disk.
Purchase the recovery disks.
Cloning is also risky because, as the disk keeps on clicking and it has errors on it, they might be cloned too!