Help on erasing an old drive while keeping the OS

[ScaryLarry38]

I've been planning on erasing all of my data on my 500 GB hard drive simply because I need more space and most of the files on the drive or mostly useless old files that are going to be hard to get rid of. My question is how do I keep the operating system (windows 10) when I erase the drive because I do not have the OS disks because I bought this computer that had windows 7 and then upgraded to 10 so I obviously do not have the OS disks. Do I need a USB drive to put the OS onto that? rewrite a new disk? Any help or information would be great! 

[soup]

IBTL Ooops you mentioned pirating you wont get a lot of help here.

[paddy-stone]

Just "refresh windows" it removes everything apart from the OS itself, so you'd then need to install drivers etc oif needed also.

[paddy-stone]

Settings>recovery>reset this PC

[DarkEnergy]

I think Windows 10 has a reset option but removes everything and reinstalls itself. If you're not comfortable with that, manually erasing stuff isn't hard. Uninstall all programs you don't need. Delete everything from the basic directories (Desktop, downloads, docs, pics, videos) Run ccleaner to remove more, look in the AppData folder for other crap programs leave behind as well as program files. 

[Mark77]

Windows 10 licenses obtained through the free upgrade process are generally tied to the hardware, not to the installation.  If you had an installation recognized as 'genuine', it shouldn't be a problem to replace the HDD and do a fresh install.  The fresh install will contact Microsoft and obtain authorization accordingly from the server without entering any license codes. 

 

Of course, if you're not licensed, then you really should be.