Information
This article will show you how to delete a hard disk partition or volume using Disk Management or Diskpart in Windows 7 to create empty unallocated space that you can use to create new partitions with.
Note
If your hard disk is currently set up as a single partition, then you can't delete it unless you do it from Drive options (advanced) during a Windows 7 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 start correctly.
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.
METHOD ONE
Using Disk Management
1. Open the Control Panel (All Items view), and click on the Administrative Tools icon.
2. Click on Computer Management in Administrative Tools.
3. In the left pane under Storage, click on Disk Management. (See screenshot below)
4. In the middle pane, right click on the partition that you want to delete and click on Delete Volume. (See screenshot above)
NOTE:
If the partition is a logical partition, then you will need to delete the free space again to have it as unallocated space.
5. Click on Yes to confirm deletion. (See screenshot below)
6. The selected partition (step 4) is now deleted and is now 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.
7. Close the Computer Management window. (See screenshot above)
METHOD TWO
Using Diskpart in a Elevated Command Prompt
1. Open a elevated command prompt, or a command prompt at boot.
2. In the elevated command prompt, type diskpart and press Enter. (See screenshot below)
3. In the elevated 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 elevated 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 elevated 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 elevated command prompt, type exit and press Enter. (See screenshot below)
7. Close the elevated command prompt.
8. The selected partition (step 4) is now deleted and is now 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.
