How do I transfer Windows 8, all progs and data to new lap

Hi,
My laptop is being replaced as it has a faulty motherboard (but still works)
The new laptop will be identical.

Is there any way I can clone my hdd so that when the replacement arrives I can copy all the data onto that hdd without having to reinstall all my programs etc.

I know there are various cloning softwares available, but do they work? Are they any good? and most importantly are they idiot proof??

Any recommendations of the best way to achieve this data transfer to new machine would be appreciated.

Thanks

Best Free Drive Cloning Software

Free Hard Disk Backup and Restore, Hard Disk Image and Cloning Utilities (thefreecountry.com)

Note that if the Laptop has Windows pre-installed you may need to get Activation resolved. If it is a retail edition of Windows you should be OK. If the machine is being replaced under warranty ask the Laptop maker about activation issues.

Norton Ghost or Partimage on Ubuntu live CD (NOT FOR ntfs, but for EXT3). That's what I'm usually using, and the should do the work.

Also, I have a Minitool Partition wizard Server edition bootable disc, and it's compatible with everything, safe, and has great GUI. Works well through windows too (install a guest linux). So you have just to connect the two HDD-s to the same computer and then copy it.
Or you use an external HDD if you don't want to take apart the computers.

You might create (or download) a Win8 repair disc too, because the bootloader is on a hidden partition, so it won't be copied, but the repair disc can reinstall it in most cases.

Since its identical have them send you your hard drive back to you or install it in the new NB for you? If you have the hard drive just put it in. You might need to disable secure boot and enable CSM in your BIOS, you might have to re activate the old OS but that should be automatic as the Win 8 key is built into your MB
Macrium Reflect seem to be the best imaging or Cloning software is capable of recreating all partitions on a UEIF GPT disk and free, You'll have to pay to do file back up. But all you want to do is clone your old drive to your new drive its free.

You can use any Disk Cloning Program, but you will have to close the Partitions one by one. You can automate this process with Paragon Partition Manager, you can install it and make a recovery CD, use the Recovery CD to clone the partition. You might have to dig around to find Paragon Partition Manager version 9 which is the one that works for Windows 8, I went into the depths of google and found an old version. It will work best if you do it from outside of Windows.

If you cant do the work on your laptop as is, you will have to take the drive out and with the new drive attached, do the cloning. In Partition Manager, you can use "Raw Data Copy" and that will allow you to copy partitions that are not formatted in a readable way for Windows- At least 1 partition on the system will be like that but it must be copied. If you don't the system will not boot because sometimes the Boot Sector is in that hidden partition. I just closed an HD rom a Lenovo that was like this.

There are still old fashioned sector by sector disk cloning programs. But the new drive must be the exact size as the old.