How can I remove default windows programs and system files

Hello.

My windows 7 Toshiba laptop finally gave out on me after nearly 7 years of use and I took out the hard drive and bought an enclosure kit to recover all of my data on it. Well the kit works and I now have access to my data but I am having trouble deleting files like internet explorer, media player, system files etc. All of these files combined gives about 30GB memory which I would have killed for on my old 250GB Toshiba laptop.

I was able to change ownership, permissions, and disabled inheritance and deleted a bunch of now useless programs and files. Those are the only remaining files of the ones I don't need that I cannot get rid of as I plan on keeping the hard drive for as long as it will let me.

My question is can those files not be removed without formatting the hard drive, or is there a work around? I upgraded to an HP windows 10 laptop and used it to change ownership.

Hi is this going to be just a storage drive if so then just format the drive and start fresh.