So a few days ago i had messed up my HDD on my 2012 x51 Alienware desktop, i tried everything i could to fix it, which wasn't much because i couldn't even use my keyboard during bios to hit f2 or f12, and have decided to replace the HDD. However i dont know if i should get a new HDD or SSD because I am unsure of how to replace/reinstall the windows 8 OS onto a new drive. I have the alienware x51 resources disk but I'm pretty sure that can't be everything for windows 8 too.
Basicly my questions boil down to;
How do I or What do i need in order to install Windows 8 onto a new drive?
Can the new drive be an SSD or does it have to be an HDD? does it have to be the same HDD as the one i am replacing (alienware 500GB SATA 3.5 etc.)? Does the size of the drive matter considering i am not ghosting/cloning an old HDD and importing it?
Does anyone with an alienware computer know what the Alienware Resource Disk is for or how to use it? After quick google searches it seems to be a very risky thing to use as there are many complaints of it apparently bricking computers, but i honestly don't know.