In Windows 10/8/7, there is a very useful built-in tool for managing disk and volume-related tasks. How to open Disk Management from command prompt? Convert FAT32 to NTFS files system from command prompt.Convert to GPT or MBR from command prompt.Extend partition or create a new partition.Delete partition using disk management command.How to open Disk Management from command prompt?.You may have to repeat this for other protected partitions until the drive is clear. This will force the deletion of the partition. (The disk and partition are already selected when you get this message so type it in straight after receiving the alert). To override this issue, you simply go ahead and type: Use “ override” command if you receive the following message:Ĭannot delete a protected partition without the force protected parameter set. How To Override Protection When Deleting Disk Partitions

Once selected type & enter list partition Instructions To Delete Partitions Using DISKPART In PowerShellĪt the main command prompt type & enter diskpartĪt DISKPART prompt, type & enter list diskįrom DISKPART prompt type & enter select disk 6 (or whatever disk you wish to delete) The series of commands that we are going to use are called DISKPART. If you are using Windows 11, this may be worded Windows Terminal (Admin). To open Powershell with administrative rights, simply right-click on your Start Menu flag icon and open PowerShell (Admin).

The following method will remove all visible, hidden, protected and shadow copy partitions that the Disk Management tool in Windows is unable to delete. But this leaves multiple protected partitions on the disk. By simply formatting the drive, this will only format the main (largest) partition. Often if you are recycling drives that have been pulled from systems, they will have multiple partitions on them that were used for things like Windows recovery in laptops. Remove Hidden & Protected Disk Partitions

If you wish to completely restore a hard disk back to factory settings without any partitions, we can use either Command Prompt, Windows PowerShell (in Windows 10) or Windows Terminal (in Windows 11). Within any version of Windows, it is possible to delete partitions on drives without the use of any additional third-party software.

Command prompt disk management