[Full Guide] How to Delete Windows Partition Step-by-Step

Disk Management: delete a partition in Windows

You will delete a partition/volume when you don’t need it anymore or want to get unallocated space for extending another drive. You can remove a data partition in Windows Disk Management just within few clicks. Let’s walk through the process.

Step 1. Press Windows + R simultaneously, input “diskmgmt.msc” and click “OK” to open Disk Management

(In Windows 10, you can press Windows + X and choose “Disk Management” on the pop-up menu).

Step 2. Now, you’ll be in the main interface of Disk Management. Right-click the partition that you need to delete and choose “Delete Volume”.

Warning: If you choose a system-protected partition, like a recovery partition, you’ll find the Delete Volume greyed out.

Step 3. Click “Yes” button to confirm that you want to delete the partition.

Step 4. You can see it shows as unallocated space after deletion.

Diskpart: remove a partition force in Windows

Delete Volume feature in Disk Management will be disabled when you try to remove a hidden partition or a system-protected partition. However, you can complete such partition deletion through Diskpart utility. Check out the following tutorial:

Step 1. Press Windows + R at the same time, input “diskpart” and hit Enter to open Diskpart utility.

Step 2. Type commands listed below and hit Enter key after type each command.

▪ list disk
▪ select disk
▪ list partition
 ▪ select partition y
▪ delete partition override

Notes:

✔ x is the disk number of the disk that contains the partition that you want to delete; y is the partition number of the partition that you want to remove from the hard drive.
✔ It’s unavailable to get rid of system partition, EFI partition, system reserved partition or a partition that contains page file, hibernation file or crash dump file.
✔ If you happen to delete an incorrect partition, you can recover the deleted partition via partition recovery software.

An overall GUI tool: delete various types of partitions in Windows

In many times, Disk Management and Diskpart are enough to delete an unwanted partition from hard drive on Windows 10/8/7, XP, and Vista. To delete a partition that isn’t allowed to be removed within Windows native tools, you can use AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional (later referred to as “PA Pro”).

The powerful partition tool can delete the Windows system partition, EFI partition, system reserved partition and other partitions concisely and effortlessly, even for a newbie. And it can unpartition a hard drive at one time via  “Delete all partitions” or “Wipe Hard Derive” function, which will be very useful when you want to blank the second HDD after you change C drive to SSD from HDD. Now, follow the step-by-step guide to delete partition in Windows 10/8/7.

Warning: You will be unable to boot your PC from the hard drive after you remove system partition C, EFI partition or system reserved partition on it.

Step 1. Install and launch the tool on your PC. Right click the partition that you want to remove (here I plan to remove EFI system partition) and choose “Delete Partition”.

Step 2. Choose “Delete Partition Quickly (delete partition without wiping data)” and click “OK”.

Step 3. Click “Apply” > “Proceed” and enter WinPE environment to delete the EFI system partition.

★Tips:

PA Pro is for Windows 10/8.1/8/7, XP and Vista. For partition deletion in Windows Server 2019/2016/2012 (R2)/2008 (R2)/2003, you should use an advanced edition.

The partition tool owns other powerful functions, like allocating free space from one partition to another, migrating OS to SSD and so on.

You can free download the demo version of PA Pro to preview and simulate the operation at first.