Does Deleting a Partition Erase Data? How to Recover it?

Does deleting a partition erase data?

Deleting a partition or several partitions is an effective way to free up a hard drive in Windows computers. However, does deleting a partition erase data? This is the most common problem that many users asked about before deletion. The answer to "Does deleting a partition remove all data" is no!

When you delete partitions on your hard drive, you will remove its drive letter from it, making your OS recognize it as unallocated space. Thus, all the saved data cannot be found and accessed by the system. But in fact, the data may still be present on your Windows and can be restored before they are overwritten by new data.

So what happens when a partition is deleted? Check it out:

◉ Deleting all saved data (recoverable).

◉ Removing the drive letter.

◉ Becoming unallocated space.

◉ Getting rid of some viruses and malware.

Is deleting a partition the same as formatting or wiping? Which one should I choose?

After answering "Does deleting partitions delete data", you may want to know if formatting or wiping a disk erase data. Refer to the comparison table below, you can have a better understanding of them.

	Deleting	Formatting	Wiping
Does it delete data?	Delete data	Delete data	Erase data completely
How it works?	Changing drive letter, making it become unallocated space	Resetting file system, making partition as writable	Wipe everything on it and write random data to it
Can you recover the data ?	Yes	Yes	No

According to the table, you can tell the differences among deleting, formatting, and wiping. But when to use them? The following recommendation is for reference only.

✔ To quickly release space on a hard drive and delete everything on it, you should use deleting.

✔ To prepares your hard drive for specific usage and change the file system, you can choose formatting.

✔ To clean up a partition or hard drive for reuse or sale, wiping is the best choice.

How do I delete a partition without losing data?

Now, you have known the answer to "Does deleting a partition erase data" is negative because it only makes your files hidden from the computer. However, the problem is that you cannot just delete a partition and keep the data on it at the same time. If you don’t want to lose the data, you need to take additional steps.

That is to back up your data to a different place before deleting and restore it from the backup after deleting. When it comes to data backup, one of the easiest ways is to clone what you want to keep to another drive.

Here we recommend you use a free disk cloning tool called AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard.  It supports cloning a partition or hard drive, moving programs or files, and migrating the operating system from one partition to another. Only with several clicks, you can complete the partition clone as a backup.

Step 1. Launch the AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. Right-click the partition you need to clone and select "Clone Partition".

Step 2. In this window, select a proper cloning method and click "Next". Here we select the first method.

Step 3. Choose an unallocated space, tick the "Optimize the performance of SSD" option, and click "Next" to continue.

Step 4. Now, you can resize the partition as you need or keep the default settings and click "Finish".

Step 5. When you back to the main interface, click "Apply" and "Proceed" to commit the operation.

After that, you will get a duplicate of your to-be-deleted partition. Then, it's time to delete a partition on your Windows computer.

Step 1. Right-click the Windows icon, and click "Disk Management" to open it.

Step 2. On the main interface, right-click the partition you plan to delete, select "Delete Volume", and click "Yes" when you are asked whether to continue.

Notes: ◤ You can't delete system partition with Disk Management because Windows won't allow you to do so. ◤ If you want to know more methods about deletion, you can refer to this post: How to Delete Partition in Windows 11/10/8/7 (3 Free Ways)

How to recover the partition after deleting it?

What if you want to get your partition back after deletion? Here are two ways for you to make it.

Way 1. Recover the deleted partition from the backup

If you have backed up your to-be-deleted drive, you can easily restore it from the backup.

1. Open the partition that is used to back up your data.

2. Copy and paste your data back to your disk or clone the whole partition back.

Way 2. Recover the deleted partition via a partition recovery tool

If you forget to make a backup in advance, you can upgrade to AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional for help. It is not simply a disk cloner but also a professional partition recovery utility. This tool comes with a quick and safe scanning method to find out your deleted or lost partition, which helps a lot, especially when you accidentally delete the boot partition. In addition, it also supports to recover lost data if you need.

Press the button below to get a demo version of AOMEI Partition Assistant and follow the guide to have a free trial.

Step 1. On the main interface, click "Recover" option > "Partition Recovery" on the top panel.

Step 2. Select the disk which contains deleted partition.

Step 3. Select "Fast Search" which takes less time for the first time and click "Next". If this method is not working, select "Full Search" then.

Step 4. All the lost partition found will be listed, tick the deleted partition and click "Proceed". Then, click "Finish" to exit the operation.

Conclusion

This article has answered the question of "Does deleting a partition erase data" and explained the difference between deleting, formatting, and wiping. What's more, remember to back up your important data beforehand via AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. If you forgot or failed to make a backup, AOMEI software can also help you recover it with ease.