Computer Hardware Help → [hard drive] HDD failed, ready to replace & add new mSATA SSD also

I have a Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 model laptop that originally had a Samsung Spinpoint 5400RPM 1TB HDD + 16GB SSD mSATA drive (for cache only). The original drive failed a few days ago, so I have decided to not only replace the new "spinning" drive with a 7200RPM model but I also bought a Samsung 850 EVO mSATA 128GB drive that I want to make the primary boot drive with the OS/programs.

All I have done thus far is inserted both drives into the laptop so they are completely blank, haven't formatted or anything. I did go into the BIOS and it shows both recognized.

Unfortunately, when I decided to create recovery USB media the original Spinpoint drive was already at 70% drive health with some disk errors according to Acronis Drive Monitor. Yes, I know very stupid to wait... I didn't receive any errors while creating the recovery media but I am skeptical on the stability of all of the recovery media that is contained on that USB flash drive.

Anyway, what option should I take to make the mSATA SSD the primary boot drive with the OS and programs and the 1TB as the data only drive for everything else? I have been reading a lot of threads at the Lenovo forums suggesting cloning with Paragon Backup & Recovery and also Paragon Migrate OS to SSD programs, however in this case I have both drives completely blank and basically starting from scratch.

Also, I have read some threads/articles that say with Windows 8.1 and later you can create a clean install recovery media USB that will work from this Microsoft site (link). I was able to run Belarc Advisor to obtain a product key before the drive completely died, however it shows it's for Windows 8.1 64bit but originally I had Windows 8 64bit and I have read in some cases that when you reinstall you can't use Windows 8.1 installation media but rather you must start with Windows 8? (I installed 8.1 upgrade originally via the Windows Store) It's all pretty confusing.

How should I begin? Any suggestions are extremely appreciated.

Thank you so much in advance!

Windows 8 keys work just fine with 8.1 installation media. Just download the file from MS and use it to build your USB install. In most cases the installer will read the OEM key stored in the BIOS, so you won't need to enter it at all.

In the BIOS it shows UEFI boot and Secure boot both enabled, does that throw a loop in anything when trying to install from the above USB media creation tool?

You want those enabled.

Okay got Windows installed on the mSATA successively (didn't have enter key or anything and it activated fine), after finishing the 1TB drive I'm going to use for data is asking to be initialized as either GPT or MBR format... What are the pros and cons of each and what we be the best choice for this drive as mainly a data only drive?

Thanks

At 1tb, it doesn't matter much. Over 3Tb, you would need gpt.

If I choose MBR, if I decide later I can convert the drive to GPT correct? If I understand an article I read. But if I start at GPT format I can't go backwards to MBR?

I have never tried converting from one to the other.