How to Delete Partitions on an External Hard Drive [Updated for 2024]

Updated by

Tracy King 

Written by

Linda 

Last updated on April 19, 2024

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How to delete a partition on an external hard drive:

• In Windows 10, you can easily open the Disk Management console by right-clicking the Start button and selecting "Disc Management" from the Start menu.
• In Disk Management, locate the external hard drive and the corresponding partition you wish to delete.
• Right-click on the partition and select "Delete Volume" from the context menu.

How to Delete a Partition from an External Hard Drive in Windows 11/10

"I just bought a 500 GB external USB hard drive. It has a small 400 MB partition that I want to merge with the other partition to make one partition. This small partition is reported as a CD drive, file system UDF, and contains data. The larger partition is an NTFS partition. What is the best way to delete this small partition? Can or should I do this in Disk Management?"

3 Ways to Delete an External Hard Drive Partition in Windows 11/10

This guide on how to delete a partition on an external hard drive in Windows 10 is for anyone with similar needs.

1. 1. Try to partition the new external hard drive into multiple segments.
2. 2. Windows prompts you to delete partitions on the external hard drive for a clean installation.
3. 3. You delete all partitions on the external hard drive before sending it.
4. 4. You fail to delete partitions on the external hard drive in your way.

We can't enumerate all the scenarios where you would want to delete an external hard drive partition in Windows 10/8.1/8/7/XP/Vista or even Windows Server. But, this article has almost all the possible solutions you can find on the Internet. So, read on and pick one that suits you.

• Solution 1: Use Partition Master Free (Recommended)
• Solution 2: Try Windows 10 Disk Management
• Solution 3: Run Command Prompt on Windows 10

Tip: Have an external hard drive enclosure on hand so you can place the hard drive inside and plug it into your Windows 10 computer. Make sure your Windows 10 PC recognizes the external drive and assigns it a drive letter.

Solution 1: Delete External Hard Drive Partition with Partition Master Free Solution 2: Format External Hard Drive in Windows

The most reliable way to delete a partition or multiple partitions on a hard drive or external hard drive is to use third-party software. Here are the reasons to use a free partition manager:

• It's free and easy to use
• The user interface is clean and straightforward
• You can get extra technical support
• The software also offers many other features, such as migrating the operating system to SSD/HDD, erasing HDD, resizing partitions, and more

Click the Download button to get Partition Master Free. This is a free partition manager with a wide range of hard drive partition management features. Follow these steps to delete a hard drive partition:

Step 1. Run AOMEI Partition Assistant. In the "Partition Management" interface, right-click on the partition you want to delete and select "Delete".

Step 2: Confirm the message to delete the selected disk partition, and click Yes.

Click "Execute Task", and then click "Apply" to begin deleting the partitions on the device.

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Solution 2: Delete Windows 11/10 Partition on External Hard Drive via Disk Management

You can also use Disk Management to delete an external hard drive partition. This is a feature provided by the Windows operating system to perform basic disk management operations, such as deleting partitions, formatting partitions, creating partitions, shrinking volumes, and more. Learn how to delete a partition on an external hard drive using Disk Management in Windows 10.

Step 1. Open the Disk Management program on your Windows 10 computer. There are three easy ways to do this.

1. Navigate to This PC > Manage > Disk Management.
2. Type diskmgmt.msc in the search box in the bottom-left corner, then click diskmgmt.msc in the list.
3. Press Windows + R to open Run, type diskmgmt.msc in the box, then click OK.

Step 2: In the "Disk Management" screen, right-click on the partition of the external hard drive that you no longer need and select "Delete Volume…"

Step 3. Click “Yes” to let Windows 10 format the selected partition on your external drive.

After you do this, your deleted partition will become unallocated space with no drive letter assigned to it.

Solution 3: Delete External Hard Drive Partition via Windows 11/10 Command Prompt

If you're comfortable with the command line, you can do this that way. Here are the details on how to delete a partition on an external hard drive in Windows 10.

1. Press the Windows + X keys, then select "Command Prompt (Admin)" from the menu. This will open the Command Prompt window in Windows 10.

Step 2. Type diskpart, and press Enter after each of the following commands on a new line:

1. list disk (all hard drives will be displayed, labeled Disk 0, Disk 1, etc.)
2. select disk + number (if your external drive is Disk 1, type select disk 1)
3. list partition (all partitions on your external drive will be displayed)
4. select partition + number (if you want to delete Partition 1 on your external drive, type select partition 1)
5. delete partition (this command will delete the selected partition)

Once you have fulfilled all these requirements, you can proceed to completely remove the partition from your external hard drive.

Additional Help – How to Partition a Hard Disk in Windows 11/10/8/7

After deleting a partition, the space will become unallocated. You can adjust the external hard drive size by extending the partition space or creating a new partition, and so on. With the help of the partition manager tool, you can simply partition a hard drive or external hard drive:

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Conclusions

That's all about how to delete an external hard drive partition in Windows 10/8/7. You can also try these methods if you want to delete partitions on an SD card, USB drive, SSD drive, and so on. After deleting partitions, you can use a partition tool to repartition the drive. It helps manage disk space and boost performance better.