Windows 10: Windows wont let me delete partitions on my external drive.

So I have a 1TB hard drive that i wanted to put into my laptop for more storage, I cloned all of the data and partitions onto it and put it into the computer. Upon realising that is was exteremely slow, I took it out the laptop and put my old ssd back in. I wanted to delete all the partitions for the 1TB drive which is currently connected externally through a USB to SATA cable. I opened the disk manager and the EFI system partition and the recovery partition are still there. So i try to delete volume only to realised it is greyed out. How can i delete them?

:)

 

W7 Hard drive partition issue

to get rid of that 100 meg windows partition that setup creates for you on a new install on a blank hdd:

- press shift+f10 when on the partition management screen in setup <-- this opens a command prompt
- diskpart <-- start the windows command line partition management tool
- list disk <--- list the installed hdds in this computer for the next step
- select disk 0 <- might have to replace 0 with the number of the correct disk
- clean <-- this will erase all data on the disk you selected one step up- dont use the wrong disk!
- create partition primary <- creates a primary partition taking up all space on the drive, adjust the command if necessary
- exit, exit to exit diskpart and the command prompt
- click refresh in partition manager and select your newly created partition and install to that

 

external hard drive

Hi Chrpee,

If you can't find external hard drive on Disk management than the next step is using the diskpart via command line, please follow the steps below:-

On the keyboard hit ((Windows logo key + R key)) than type ((CMD))

Now the windows command line will appear, the next steps is to type ((diskpart))

After that type ((list disk)) to show you the list of hard disks with partitions

If you found your external hard drive one of the list than you need to type ((select disk number)), note: the number is a disk number

Once you selected the hard disk or partitions than type ((clean))

than type ((create partition primary))

than type ((select partition 1))

than type ((active))

than type ((format fs=ntfs quick))

than type ((assign))

last type ((exit))

Check if the external hard drive appeared, if not please see the link below for more info and let me know if you need any assist

https://uk.pcmag.com/dvd-burners/120624/what-to...

 

How to delete the partition after creating a recovery drive on Windows 10?

Hi,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community and being a part of Windows 10.

I understand your concern about deleting the recovery partition after creating a recovery drive. We will help you with this issue.

I suggest you to try the below troubleshooting steps to delete the recovery partition from Command Prompt and check if it helps.

I suggest you to log-in as an administrator with Microsoft account, try the below and check if it helps.

• Press Windows + X keys from the keyboard, click on
  Command Prompt (Admin)
• Type: diskpart
• At the DISKPART prompt, type: list disk (Make note of the disk number of the disk from which you want to delete the partition.)
• At the DISKPART prompt, type: select diskn (Select the disk
  n from which you want to delete the partition.)
• At the DISKPART prompt, type: list partition (Make note of the number of the partition that you want to delete.)
• At the DISKPART prompt, type: select partition (Select the partition
  n that you want to delete.)
• At the DISKPART prompt, type: delete partition

Caution

• 
  Deleting a partition on a dynamic disk can delete all dynamic volumes on the disk, thus leaving the disk in a corrupt state. To delete a dynamic volume, use the
  delete volume command instead. For instructions on how to delete a dynamic volume, see Related Topics.
  
• 
  When you delete a partition, all data on that deleted partition or logical drive is lost.
  
• 
  You cannot recover deleted partitions or logical drives.
  

Hope it helps. Reply to the post with an updated status of this issue, we will be happy to assist you further.