Partition or Volume - Delete

How to Delete a Partition or Volume in Windows 7 and Windows 8​

   Information

This will show you how to delete a partition or volume on a hard disk using Disk Management or Diskpart in Windows 7 and Windows 8 to create empty unallocated space that you can use to create new partitions with.

   Note

• You will not be able to delete the Windows partition that you are currently logged in to. The only way would be to delete it at boot or during a Windows installation.
• You also can't delete the system partition, boot partition, or any partition that contains the virtual memory paging file, because Windows needs this information to startup and run properly.

   Warning

• You must be logged on in an administrator account to be able to do this tutorial.
• When you delete a partition, all data on the partition is erased.
• If you disable the Disk Defragmenter service, then you will get the error below when you try to do anything in Disk Management. If you get this error, then make sure that the Disk Defragmenter service is set to only Manual.

OPTION ONE

To Delete Partition or Volume using Disk Management

1. Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog, type diskmgmt.msc, and Press Enter.

2. In the middle pane, right click on the partition of a disk that you want to delete, and click/tap on Delete Volume. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: If the partition is a logical partition, then you will need to delete the free space again to have it as unallocated space. 3. Click/tap on Yes to confirm deletion. (see screenshot below)
4. The selected partition (step 2) is now deleted and is unallocated space on the disk. If not, then delete the partition again until it displays as unallocated space like below. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: You can now use this unallocated space to create a new partition with, or extend another adjacent partition on that same hard disk into it.
5. You can now close Disk Management if you like.

OPTION TWO

To Delete Partition or Volume using Diskpart Command

1. Open an elevated command prompt in Windows 7 or Windows 8, or a command prompt at boot in Windows 7 and Windows 8.

2. In the command prompt, type diskpart and press Enter. (See screenshot below)
3. In the command prompt, type list volume and press Enter. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: This will give you a list of volume numbers to select from to delete.
4. In the command prompt, type select volume # and press Enter. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: You would substitute # for the volume number listed that you want to delete. For example, I want to delete the listed volume 3, so I would type select volume 3 and press Enter.
5. In the command prompt, type delete volume and press Enter. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: If it fails to delete, then use type delete volume override and press enter instead.
6. In the command prompt, type exit and press Enter. (See screenshot below)
7. Close the command prompt.

8. The selected partition (step 4) is now deleted and is unallocated space on the disk.
NOTE: You can use this unallocated space to create a new partition with, or extend another partition on that same hard disk into it.
That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• Data Partition
• How to Extend a Partition or Volume in Windows 7
• How to Create a New Partition or Volume in Windows 7
• How to Create and Attach a Virtual Hard Disk in Windows 7
• How to Shrink a Partition or Volume in Windows 7
• How to Unattach and Delete a Virtual Hard Disk in Windows 7
• How to Setup Windows 7 to Boot from a VHD (Virtual Hard Disk)
• How to Convert a FAT or FAT32 Volume to NTFS in Windows 7
• How to Convert a MBR Disk to a GPT Disk
• How to Convert a GPT Disk to a MBR Disk
• How to Convert a Basic Disk to a Dynamic Disk
• How to Convert a Dynamic Disk to a Basic Disk
• How to Clean or Clean All a Disk with the Diskpart Command
• How to Securely Wipe a Hard Disk with "Darik's Boot and Nuke"
• How to Quick Format a HDD or USB Drive
• How to Mark a Partition as Active in Windows 7
• How to Mark a Partition as Inactive in Windows 7 and Vista
• How to "Clean" or "Clean All" a Disk with the Diskpart Command

 

[ursuchascene]

Hi Brink

Hope you can help me. I'm running on a simmilar problem. After installing windows 7 (not the 1st time i did it w/ the same installation disc), i had a 0 MB unallocated space. Not too much of a problem actually, just annoying. Then after i tried to install it again, i had another 0 MB unallocated space..
problem is i can't delete it, even using disc management won't do cause they dont appear on the list.. very frustrated and very tired, sorry if similar question has been posted..thanx so much.

 

[eldinv]

Can you please post a screenshot of your disk management Window.

How to Post a Screenshot in Seven Forums

 

[ursuchascene]

wow thanks for the quick reply, here it is..

 

[eldinv]

So you want to extend your C partition, and gain the space in the D partition.

 

[ursuchascene]

nope not really.. everything you saw in my screeny are fine.. exept there are 2 unallocated space with the size of 0 MB that is not present in the disc management tool..it only appears on the installation process where i have to pick what partition do i want to install windows 7.. i tried to delete it from there, but after i make a partition it appears again..

 

[eldinv]

Oh, I see.

I could be wrong, but since your system reserve is in tact, then can I suggest you try deleting those empty spaces using a partition editor.

Partition Wizard : Use the Bootable CD

 

[ursuchascene]

reading through, will try later.. thanks for the assistance eldinv.

 

[eldinv]

Brink might have a more solid suggestions, he's the real pro and that's why he gets paid the big bucks.

 

[Brink]

Hello Ursuchascene,

I'm not sure what problem you may be having. I do not see any 0 MB partitions or unallocated space in your Disk Management screenshot. I see that you have 0 free space on your DVD E: drive though.

 

[ursuchascene]

Haha so it really does pay to do good deeds

Anyway eldinv, i think i've solved it. I'm not into reading last night and decided to play with reformatting and deleting my partitions using the install disc. Then after i tried to install windows 7 again the 0 MB partitions didn't persist anymore. Though i'm afraid i might be seeing these strange partitions in the future.

Hi Brink. My problem was after deleting all partitions making it a single unallocated partitions, a 0 MB unallocated space was made after i made a new 30 GB partition. At first i didn't mind it and went through with installing win 7. Then after i reformatted again and made partitions, another 0 MB unallocated space appeared. That's when it bothered me. My partitions looked like this.

Unallocated Space 0 MB
System Reserve 100 MB
Disc 1 30 GB
Disc 2 80 GB
Unallocated Space 0 MB

It doesn't look exactly like this, just wanted to show how the unallocated space appeared in this step of the installation.

 

[Brink]

Ah, I see. I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted though.

 

[holtlol]

Hello, I am trying to delete disk 0. I cannot delete disk 0 because it set as a "system" disk. How can i remove this title from the disk in order to remove it. Thanks in advance for all your help. I sure hope someone still responds to this thread.

 

[Jonathan_King]

Hello, I am trying to delete disk 0. I cannot delete disk 0 because it set as a "system" disk. How can i remove this title from the disk in order to remove it. Thanks in advance for all your help. I sure hope someone still responds to this thread.

Hello,

Yes, we are still active.

Try booting into a command prompt, and deleting the volume using Diskpart.

Boot to your Windows DVD or repair disc; if you don't have either, create one: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2083-system-repair-disc-create.html

Select "repair my computer", and open a command prompt. Enter the following commands:

diskpart
list disk

Make note of the number of the 150GB drive, and substitute that number for "n" in the commands below.

select disk n
clean
exit
exit

That should do the trick.

 

[holtlol]

"Clean is not allowed on the disk containing the current boot, system, pagefile, crashdump or hibernation value."

WAT DO

thanks

 

[Brink]

Hello Holtlol, and welcome to Seven Forums.

It sounds like you may have tried to Clean "Disk 1" instead of "Disk 0" by mistake. Double check to make sure that you have the correct disk # selected compared to it's size.

 

[mjf]

Following Brink's advice check that you are attempting to clean Disk 0. If no success then the following is likely to be the situation:

Disk 0 is still "System" meaning it contains boot files. The OS on C: is being booted through System on Disk 0 and hence the message you receive when trying to delete it.

Then
(1) make disk 1 Active.
(2) Disconnect the sata cable from disk 0 and connect it to disk 1, leaving the original disk 0 (the dynamic disk) disconnected.
(3) Run Startup repair 3 times.
"Disk 1, C:", now should then be (System, active, Boot...) and booting up by itself.
(4) Connect the old disk 0 by the sata disk 1 cable.
Then you can perform the operations on the "old Disk 0" now seen as Disk 1. I am guessing you want to make it a Basic disk again instead of dynamic.

Before sata cable changes make sure your PC is powered down.

You can always create a separate System Reserved partition on C: later if you want. In fact many people prefer not to have it.

 

[mjf]

If the issue has been resolved - feedback would be useful.

 

[man1994]

can i delete an empty extended partition using disk management? i only have 1 hard disk, and i keep getting an error.

 

[Brink]

Hello man, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Please post a screenshot of your Disk Management showing your drive layout. We will be happy to take a look at it to see if that may be possible for you.

 

[lizziequirke]

Partition.

I today noticed that there is a partition on my hardrive, i have tried to remove the partition using both of the above methods with no luck. when i try through the command prompt it shows an error message.

im stuck for ideas on what to try