i just found this on a search that all i need to do is what i wrote above, install from usb and skip any activation or product key messages and once installed on new drive again connect to web and it will auto activate so i will try this now...
i never did enter a key but i did not relaize i had to connect online, i was thinking i had to get it activated before going online as usualy that is when you get problems anyway i tried an connecting my new ssd drive and running the w10 install again from within w10 to see if i could install again to the new drive. it didn't let me and it just reinstalled w10 over the current install no options or anything to install in another drive. but the drive was not formated so that might be why so I just made it a volume and formatted full and now i will try to do the install from boot in usb iso and see how that goes...
OK, so I connected the SSD drive and formatted it clean. i then booted up with my w10iso on usb and ran a install, full install. there was an option to use my current old drive with the w10 already on it or to select the new SSD drive which was mounted as 0 drive. i chose the new drive of course and when through the install process and passed on entering a prod id. once installed i connected to web rebooted and hello it is now activated on my new drive as well. all done, thanks all for the tips etc, hope it helps anyone else with any issues with 8.1 to 10