Delete a Partition in Windows 10

Today, we will see how to delete a partition or volume on your drive in Windows 10. This can be useful if you have an old partition on your drive which you are not going to use. In this case, you can delete it and merge it with another partition to enlarge its size. In modern Windows, this can be done without using third party tools.

Keep in mind: Deleting a partition/volume will result in all its data, files and folders getting destroyed. It will be hard to recover your data after the operation, so check in advance if you need to backup some files from the partition that you will be deleting.

Note: Using the built-in tools, you cannot delete a system or boot partition.

After deleting a partition/volume on your drive, you will get unallocated space in its place. You can use it to extend another partition by adding this unallocated space to it. The procedure is covered in detail in the article

How to Extend a Partition in Windows 10

Windows 10 offers a number of methods that you can use to extend your partitions. These include Disk Management, the console tool "DiskPart", and PowerShell. Before proceeding, ensure that your user account has administrative privileges. Now, follow the instructions below.

To delete a partition in Windows 10, do the following.

1. Press the Win + X keys together.
2. In the menu, select Disk Management.
3. In Disk Management, right-click on the partition you would like to delete.
4. Select Delete volume in the context menu.
   If the 'Delete Volume...' command is not available, this indicates that the partition is in use, or it can be a system or boot partition.
5. Click on the 'Yes' button to confirm the operation.

You are done.

The process takes a few seconds but Disk Management shows no progress bar. Once the process is done, it will show you the new partition layout of the drive.

Delete a partition using DiskPart

DiskPart is a text-mode command interpreter bundled with Windows 10. This tool enables you to manage objects (disks, partitions, or volumes) by using scripts or by direct input at the command prompt.

Tip: DiskPart can be used to wipe a disk or a partition securely.

To delete a partition using DiskPart, do the following.

1. Open an elevated command prompt.
2. Type diskpart.
3. Type list volume to see all drives and their partitions.
4. Look at the ### column in the output. You need to use its value with the command select volume NUMBER. Substitute the NUMBER portion with the actual partition number you want to delete.
5. To delete the selected partition, type delete volume. See the following screenshot:

You should see the message DiskPart successfully delete the volume.

Finally, you can use PowerShell for doing the same operation.

Extend a partition using PowerShell

1. Open an elevated PowerShell instance.
2. Type Get-Volume to see the list of your partitions.
3. Note the drive letter of the partition you want to delete and type the next command:

   Remove-Partition -DriveLetter drive_letter

   Replace the "drive_letter" portion with the actual value. In my case, it is E.

4. Type Y and hit the Enter to confirm the operation.

That's it!

Related articles:

• How to Extend a Partition in Windows 10
• How to Shrink a Partition in Windows 10
• How to Change Drive Letter in Windows 10

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