might check this potion out, but will depend on cost of 8 then. I have a 4-5 year old xps so a fast machine, but only usb2. I do have a spare external hard drive I could use as a bootable so that might work.
~M

>Laptop has to support booting from USB. Not all do. I hadn't thought of this option, but it could be valid.
>
>>Swapping main HD was something I tried a few years ago - did not sit well with me. Swapping a second HD in a 17' is another case - that worked quite well. Similar in 15' if you opt to work with SSD, HD and external DVD. Another option with most laptops is USB3: if the machine does not support it, an adapter is cheap and the speed are good enough for a multi-GB copy if that is really needed. Often just working with the external disk is good enough. YMMV...