1) No. Win10 stores the key in the BIOS (provided you have the newer UEFI BIOS). Just re-install, no need to key in activation code. Later just go to control panel->system to activate the windows if it's not already activated.

2) Yes, you can boot from DVD/USB Thumbdrive/USB External drives etc.

3) Not advised to create partition. SSD so small...unless your SSD is >= 500GB, maybe can create 2 partitions.

cloning will work but a clean install is better.

one thing to note if you go for clean install route: since your laptop has a w8 basic, that means there is a w8 key stored in bios. this usually created a problem. if you just run the w10 install dvd (created from the stock w10 iso), which consists of home and pro editions, the installer will automatically pick up the w8 key in bios and proceed to install w10 home, instead of w10 pro.

the remedy is as follows. the easiest way to do this is to create a usb installer:

1. format a usb stick 8gb with fat32 (this is for uefi mode install, so make sure the bios settings is set to uefi, eg. secureboot enabled; csm disabled; you can also enable fastboot);
2. extract the contents of w10 iso directly into your usb stick (meaning open the iso file with 7zip or winrar, and then use the extract button and point the destination to your usb stick);
3. put the following into a .txt file (notepad) and rename it to ei.cfg (make sure the extension is .cfg instead of .txt);

4. navigate to your usb installer, and put ei.cfg into the 'sources' folder;
5. use the usb stick to boot and install w10 pro. you will be asked to choose which edition to install.

there will be 2 places that ask for keys. just skip them. once the installation is complete, connect your laptop to the internet, and it will be automatically activated.

all free and successful w10 upgrade from old os will get digital entitlement, meaning a unique hardware id of your laptop has been registered to ms server, and that id will be used to activate w10 on that particular device. that's why there is no need for a new product key with the w10 upgrade route. just make sure your laptop is connected to the internet after a clean install. the rest will be done automatically.

how much ram your laptop has ? mine laptop is 4yrs old, i5,4gb ram, samsung ssd pro 250gb. Fresh install Windows 10 built 11586, startup fast but notice some lagging! windows startup already occupied at least 60% of ram.