i have just used an upgrade disk to upgrade from vista to win 8, my o/s is now on an old ata hard drive i want to move it to an SSD which i have just brought but dont know how, can somebody help???

You will need to first reinstall the qualifying operating system on the SSD, then upgrade to Windows 8 and reactivate by telephone:

To install an upgrade version of Windows 8, you must already have Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP installed on your PC.

If you formatted the drive before the upgrade version of Windows 8 was installed, you won't be able to use your upgrade product key to activate Windows 8. To activate Windows 8, you'll need to install your previous version of Windows, and then reinstall Windows 8. For help with the activation process, contact support.

You can download it from there and use your product key to upgrade:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-8/upgrade-product-key-only

Phone activation:
1. Press Windows key + X then click Run, then type: slui.exe 4
2. Next press the 'ENTER' key
3. Select your 'Country' from the list.
4. Choose the 'Phone Activation' option.
5. Stay on the phone (do not select/press any options) and wait for a person to help you with activation.
6. Explain your problem clearly to the support person.