Can I wipe my hard drive without reinstalling Mountain Lion?

I'm running a digital version of Mountain Lion and my Mac is still running fine, but my hard drive is almost full. I'm an animation student, so I'm thinking of wiping it to get off all the junk that I don't really need for school, but I don't want to have to reinstall my OS. Is that possible?
On another note, my disk drive doesn't burn CDs anymore. It still plays DVDs fine, but the last time I tried to burn a CD it said it couldn't "calibrate the laser power needed" or something...Is there a way I can fix that? I think it just needs to be cleaned out...

If you can't run Mavericks, you can't run Mountain Lion because they have the same hardware requirements.
Check that your computer is compatible with Mountain Lion/Mavericks.
To check the model number hold down the option/alt key, go to the Apple menu and select System Information.
MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) model number 3,1 or higher
Your Mac needs:
OS X v10.6.8 or OS X Lion already installed
2 GB or more of memory (More is better - 4 GB minimum seems to be the consensus)
8 GB or more of available space
If your computer isn’t compatible, you might be able to upgrade to Lion.      
Computer Compatibility - Lion                       Lion
Check to make sure your applications are compatible. PowerPC applications are no longer supported after 10.6.      
Application Compatibility
Applications Compatibility (2)

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