AOMEI Partition Assistant
How to Delete Partition in Windows 11/10/8/7 (3 Free Ways)
You may have the need to delete your partitions to clear unnecessary data on them or expand other partitions. How to delete partition in Windows 11/10/8/7 easily and quickly? Here, three free yet useful ways will be illustrated step by step.
By Hedy / Updated on May 12, 2023
User case: How to delete partition in Windows 11?
"Hey! I have recently upgraded my computer to Windows 11. These days, I find one of my partitions is filled with unknown data or unimportant files. I do know deleting these files on it can free the space of the partition, but is it possible for me to delete the whole partition directly? The problem is that I don't know how to delete partition in Windows 11. Who can teach me? Thanks a million."
Why delete partition in Windows 11?
In order to manage your computer well, you can create multiple partitions on your hard drive and store different data on different partitions, so that you can find what you need easily next time. But sometimes, you may find some partitions fill up very soon, which leads to a shortage of free space on the partitions and then further causes the PC slows down. This is the main reason why you want to delete partition in Windows 11.
In addition, if you want to expand another partition, but there is not enough unallocated space in your disk, in such case, one workable way is to delete the whole partition with unimportant files or folders on it, allowing you to free up disk space, so that you can make good use of the space to enlarge another one.
How to delete partition in Windows 11/10/8/7?
No matter when you want to delete your partition or what partition you decide to delete, you can try any one of the three following ways you like: Disk Management, DiskPart, and AOMEI partition manager.
☎ Please note that the three methods presented below will erase all the data stored on it during the process, so make sure you have backed up the important data on it beforehand.
Method 1: Delete partition in Windows 11 via Disk Management
To delete partition in Windows 11/10/8/7 by using Disk Management, please follow the steps below:
Step 1: Right-click the Start button and choose "Disk Management", you will see all the partitions in your computer are presented.
Step 2: Right-click the drive or partition you want to delete and click "Delete Volume" in the extended menu.
Step 3: Select "Yes" to continue the process. Then you've successfully deleted your partitions.
1. Disk Management can only delete data storage partition, if you want to delete the system C drive or EFI system partition, you will find the Delete Volume grayed out.
2. You can only delete one partition each time in Disk Management, which seems a little complicated if you want to delete all partitions in a hard drive.
Method 2: Delete partition in Windows 11 via DiskPart
Many users tend to use DiskPart, a command-line tool in Windows, to commit the operations like creating or deleting partitions, converting MBR to GPT, and so on. Here are the detailed steps to delete partitions in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7:
Step 1: Press "Windows" + "R" at the same time,
Step 2: Input "diskpart" and click "OK" to open the command console. Then, run the following command:
◆ diskpart
◆ list disk (All the hard drives on your computer will be presented.)
◆ select disk n (n stands for the disk number of the disk that contains the to-be-deleted partition.)
◆ list partition (All the partitions on the selected disk will be listed.)
◆ select partition n (n is the number of the partition you want to delete.)
◆ delete partition
1. DiskPart is available to delete data partitions and delete all partitions one time by using the "clean disk" after the "list disk" command.
2. To force delete the partition that is protected by Windows like the OEM recovery partition, using the "delete partition override" command can make a difference.
3. If you are using a dynamic disk, the "delete partition" command will delete all dynamic volumes on the disk. Then you can use the "delete volume" command instead.
Method 3: Delete partition in Windows 11 via free partition manager (Recommended)
If you think Disk Management and DiskPart are troublesome in some cases, you can try a third-party partition manager, AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. Even if you don't have a solid command of a computer, you can also operate it easily with a user-friendly and concise interface. Besides, this software has the following merits in managing partitions:
- It can not only delete all kinds of partitions (either the data partition or the system partition) on your computer but also delete all partitions at one time by wiping the hard drive.
- The tool is available to be used in all editions of Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7, XP, and Vista.
- It enables you to resize/move partitions, clone partitions, format partitions, create partitions as well as merge partitions.
Now, maybe you want to download the free software and see how to delete partition in Windows 11/10/8/7:
Step 1. Install and run the software. In the main interface, you can see all disks and partitions on your computer. Right-click the partition that you want to remove, and choose "Delete Partition".
Step 2. In the small pop-up window, we recommend you choose "Delete partition quickly (delete partition without wiping data)" and click "OK".
★ Delete partition quickly: The data which has been deleted is recoverable if you want to find it back one day.
★ Delete partition and wipe all data on it: The data which has been deleted usually can not be restored by any data recovery software, so please be cautious to use it.
Step 3. Go back to the main interface; click "Apply" to commit the operation.
Now, the partition has been deleted and becomes an unallocated space, you can use it to expand another partition or create a new partition.
✍ As we mentioned, deleting the entire partition will clean up all the data completely. If you don't want to lose all of them the next time when you need to free up disk storage space or increase other partitions, upgrading to the Professional edition will give you more options:
- You can move apps or folders from one partition to another with its "APP Mover" feature, which can move documents, downloads, pictures, videos, and so on, hence you are able to move out all the unnecessary data to get more free space.
- You can allocate free space from one partition to another in the case where you fail to expand a partition because there is no unallocated space adjacent to it.
Conclusion
So, how to delete partition in Windows 11, 10, 8, and 7? You have gotten three free ways to solve it, and you can choose any one of them to fulfill your needs. By comparison, the AOMEI software is the best as it's much easier to use and has fewer shortcomings as well as provides you with more useful functions. Additionally, if you are running on Servers, you can try the Server edition.
