Can I reset my PC and reinstall Windows on a new drive without losing my licence?

[Gabby2805]

I'm thinking about resetting my PC build to factory in the summer because I want to keep this fresh and organized. I built the system myself - it is not a pre-built. My build is almost a year old and I have lots of stuff on it that I don't need, so I'd like to do a reset before putting extensive hours into modding my Skyrim!

 

I currently have a 1TB SSD with windows installed on it, and a 3TB HDD. I am thinking about getting another SSD of about 250GB to install windows onto and keep my large SSD for storage.

I have a USB with the Windows installation files on it and I bought my license code from Kinguin. 

 

If I reset my computer to factory settings, can I install windows onto a new SSD using the same license code?..how should I go about doing this? Also, should I format my other drives?

 

Thanks!

[EPPHO]

You can reinstall the OS and ask Microsoft to activate it if you already had it activated but no idea how. Google it

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, frozeNNN said:

You can reinstall the OS and ask Microsoft to activate it if you already had it activated but no idea how. Google it

Easier than cloning the drive like I did...

[Brooksie359]

yes you can. if its an OEM license like mine i just did this because I upgraded to ryzen and didn't want to deal with any driver issues. all you have to do is use the same code when you install windows and it should work just fine. 

[EPPHO]

1 minute ago, Abyss Gaming said:

Easier than cloning the drive like I did...

Yeah cloning can go wrong. Yesterday some dude said he couldn't boot the drive where he cloned OS.

[Brooksie359]

6 minutes ago, Gabby2805 said:

I'm thinking about resetting my PC build to factory in the summer because I want to keep this fresh and organized. I built the system myself - it is not a pre-built. My build is almost a year old and I have lots of stuff on it that I don't need, so I'd like to do a reset before putting extensive hours into modding my Skyrim!

 

I currently have a 1TB SSD with windows installed on it, and a 3TB HDD. I am thinking about getting another SSD of about 250GB to install windows onto and keep my large SSD for storage.

I have a USB with the Windows installation files on it and I bought my license code from Kinguin. 

 

If I reset my computer to factory settings, can I install windows onto a new SSD using the same license code?..how should I go about doing this? Also, should I format my other drives?

 

Thanks!

i would probably format the drive that currently has windows on it as that seems like you could run into some issues with that.