How to Delete All Partitions on External Hard Drive at Ease?

Remove all partitions from external hard drive

“My 500GB Seagate external hard drive has been allocated with three partitions. It is connected with a computer whose OS is Windows 10. Now, I don’t need these partitions and the data on them. Please tell me how to delete all partitions on external hard drive in Windows 10? Thanks!”

Two ways to delete all partitions on external hard drive

Actually, you can delete partition on external hard drive one by one without any obstacle in Windows Disk Management with Delete Volume option offered. But if you want to get rid of all partitions on external hard drive at once, you can take methods mentioned described in the following context.

✔ Delete all partitions using Diskpart utility

Diskpart, a Windows built-in utility, is very helpful in managing partition, allowing you to create partition, delete partition, extend partition and etc. Let’s see how to use Diskpart delete all partitions:

Step 1. Press Windows + R at the same time, input diskpart and press Enter.

Step 2. In Diskpart interface, run commands listed below:

• list disk

• select disk n

• clean

Note: “n” is the disk number of the external hard drive on which you want to delete all partitions.

When you see Diskpart succeed in cleaning the disk, you can type exit and hit Enter to close this window.

✔ Delete all partitions via AOMEI Partition Assistant

If you prefer a GUI tool or afraid to select a wrong disk and lose wanted files, you can try this Free yet Powerful partition software, AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. Featured with Delete All Partitions function, it can remove all partitions in one go. It is compatible with Windows 10/8.1/8/7, XP, and Vista (32 bit and 64bit). Now, free download it and have a look at how to delete all partitions on external hard drive via it.

Step 1. Install and run it; in the main console, right-click the external hard drive on which you want to delete all partitions and choose Delete Partition. 

Step 2. In the pop-up window, choose Delete all partitions and click OK.

Step 3. After returning to the main interface, click Apply and Proceed to commit operation.

After all partitions on external hard drive are removed, the disk will become unallocated and blank and you can repartition this disk to make use of it. If you have deleted all partitions accidentally on an inappropriate external hard drive, you can employ AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional to recover deleted partitions.

Wipe data from external hard drive totally

Removing all partition on external hard drive doesn’t make data disappear completely and you can recover data easily via certain data recovery software. If you want to make it difficult to recover erased data on external hard drive, you can use AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional to fill sectors with zero, fill sectors with random data or ….

If the external hard drive is a solid-state drive, not a hard disk drive, it is not advised to employ the same way of wiping HDD to wipe it. In such a condition, you can choose to securely erase SSD under the help of AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. 

Conclusion

The detailed guides about how to delete all partitions on external hard drive using Diskpart or AOMEI Partition Assistant have been illustrated. No matter which method you choose, you can complete deletion task within few steps.