Step-by-Step Instructions to Remove a Drive Partition on Windows 10

How to Delete a Drive Partition on Windows 10

You can delete any partition on Windows 10, and in this guide, you’ll learn how.

On Windows 10, a partition (or volume) is a logical division of the space on a physical storage drive, presented to the user as a separate drive with its own file system and settings. Since a drive can hold many partitions, there are times when you may need to reorganize them. Windows 10 includes several tools to help you remove unnecessary partitions, freeing up space to expand another partition or prepare the drive for a different partition scheme and file system.

This guide will walk you through the steps to delete a partition on an internal or external drive using Disk Management, PowerShell, and Command Prompt.

Warning: These instructions will erase all data stored in the partition. Ensure you back up any important files before proceeding.

How to Delete a Partition Using Disk Management

To delete a partition (or volume) with Disk Management on Windows 10, follow these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Disk Management and click the top result to open the tool.
3. Select the drive with the partition you want to remove.
4. Right-click the partition you want to remove and select Delete Volume.
5. Click Yes to confirm that all data will be erased.

Once you complete these steps, the partition and its contents will no longer be available, freeing up space to expand another partition or reformat the drive.

How to Delete a Partition Using PowerShell

PowerShell offers at least two methods to remove a partition, using either the drive letter or partition number.

Delete Partition with an Assigned Drive Letter

To delete a partition with an assigned letter:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for PowerShell, right-click the top result, and select Run as administrator.
3. Type the following command to list all available partitions and press Enter:

   Get-Volume

4. Type the following command to delete the partition (and its contents) and press Enter:

   Remove-Partition -DriveLetter PARTITION-LETTER

Replace “PARTITION-LETTER” with the letter of the partition you want to delete. For example, to delete partition Z:

   Remove-Partition -DriveLetter Z

5. Type Y and press Enter to confirm the deletion.

Delete Partition without an Assigned Drive Letter

To delete a partition without a drive letter:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for PowerShell, right-click the top result, and select Run as administrator.
3. Type the following command to list all available drives and press Enter:

   Get-Disk

4. Type the following command to list all partitions on the drive and press Enter:

   Get-Partition -DiskNumber DRIVE-NUMBER

Replace “DRIVE-NUMBER” with the number of the drive containing the partition you want to delete. For example, to list partitions on drive 5:

   Get-Partition -DiskNumber 5

5. Type the following command to delete the partition (and its contents) and press Enter:

   Remove-Partition -DiskNumber DRIVE-NUMBER -PartitionNumber PARTITION-NUMBER

Replace “DRIVE-NUMBER” and “PARTITION-NUMBER” with the drive and partition numbers. For example, to delete partition number 2 on drive 1:

   Remove-Partition -DiskNumber 1 -PartitionNumber 2

6. Type Y and press Enter to confirm the deletion.

How to Delete a Partition Using Command Prompt

You can also use the DiskPart command line tool within Command Prompt to delete a storage partition.

Delete Partition with Volume Command

To quickly delete a partition with the volume command:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select Run as administrator.
3. Type the following command to start DiskPart and press Enter:

   diskpart

4. Type the following command to list all available volumes and press Enter:

   list volume

5. Type the following command to select the volume you want to delete and press Enter:

   select volume VOLUME-NUMBER

Replace “VOLUME-NUMBER” with the number of the volume you want to delete. For example, to delete volume number 6:

   select volume 6

6. Type the following command to delete the volume from the drive and press Enter:

   delete volume

Delete Partition with Partition Command

To delete a specific storage partition with a variant of the DiskPart command:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select Run as administrator.
3. Type the following command to start DiskPart and press Enter:

   diskpart

4. Type the following command to list all available drives and press Enter:

   list disk

5. Type the following command to select the drive with the partition you want to delete and press Enter:

   select disk DRIVE-NUMBER

Replace “DRIVE-NUMBER” with the number of the drive containing the partition you want to delete. For example, to select disk number 5:

   select disk 5

6. Type the following command to list all available partitions on the drive and press Enter:

   list partition

7. Type the following command to select the partition you want to delete and press Enter:

   select partition PARTITION-NUMBER

Replace “PARTITION-NUMBER” with the number of the partition you want to delete. For example, to delete partition number 2:

   select partition 2

8. Type the following command to delete the partition from the drive and press Enter:

   delete partition

Once you complete the steps, the partition will be erased, freeing up space to create a new partition with a different file system or extend another volume.