Preliminary operation
Deleting a partition also means deleting all the data inside it. Before taking action, therefore, make sure that there are no important files in the partition to be deleted or, if not, transfer the data elsewhere, for example to an external disk or to the hard disk partition that will remain "alive" .
To check for important data on the partition to be deleted, open theExplore Resources Windows (the yellow folder icon located on the taskbar, bottom left); select the item computer o What PC from the sidebar of the window that opens and double click on the partition icon (eg. D: or E:).
If you're using a Mac, open the Finder (the smiling face icon located in the Dock bar, bottom left) and select the partition icon to be deleted from the sidebar of the window that opens.
Please note: there are third-party applications that allow you to merge two adjacent partitions without deleting the data in them, however, if you want to avoid unnecessary risks, I recommend that you follow the steard procedure that we are about to see together.
How to delete partition on Windows
To delete a partition on Windows you need to use the disk management utility included with the Microsoft operating system. Then click on the icon of pennant located in the lower left corner of the screen, search for the term "partitions" in the search field of the Start menu and click on the icon Create and format hard drive partitions which appears in the latter.
In the window that opens, locate the box relating to the partition to be deleted, right-click on it and select the item Delete volume from the context menu. Then confirm the deletion of the volume by replying Yes the warning that appears on the screen, and wait a few seconds for the operation to be completed.
I recommend, before starting the deletion of a partition always check that its size and the drive letter correspond to those of the partition you want to delete, otherwise you risk deleting partitions that you still need!
After deleting the partition you thought was superfluous, you will end up with del unallocated space to be redistributed on the remaining partitions (which must be adjacent to the one just deleted). To assign unallocated space to the main partition of your hard disk (ex. C:), right-click on the box relating to the latter and select the item Extend Volume give the menu to compare.
Nella finestra che si apre, click on your button NEXT, make sure that in the fields selected and Select the amount of space in MB all unallocated space left on the disk is selected and first click on NEXT and then end, to complete the operation.
Done! Now you have a single partition again on which to store data, applications and of course the computer's operating system.
If you can't delete a partition using the disk management utility (which happens, for example, when dealing with protected partitions), try this other procedure.
- Click on the button Home Windows (the flag icon) and search for the term cmd in the menu that opens;
- Right click on the icon Comme Prompt that appears in the Start menu and selects the item Run as administrator, to start the Comme Prompt as an administrator;
- Give the comme diskpart, to start the disk management tool in the Windows Comme Prompt;
- Give the comme list disk, to view the list of hard disks on the PC. If you have only one hard drive, you will see only one item named Disco 0);
- Select the disk where the partition to delete is present using the comme select disk x, where instead of the "x" you must type the number of the disk to select (eg. select disk 0, to select disk 0);
- Give the comme list partition, to view the list of partitions on the selected disk;
- Select the partition to delete using the comme select partition x, where instead of the "x" you have to type the number of the partition in question (eg. Select Partition 5, to select partition 5);
- Type the comme delete partition override, to delete the selected partition.
At the end of the operation, proceed with the redistribution of the unallocated space following the procedure that we have seen before together (ie through the Disk Management utility accessible from the Windows Start menu).
EASEUS Partition Master
If you are looking for a more advanced solution to manage disk partitions, I highly recommend you take a look at EASEUS Partition Master.
EaseUS Partition Master is one of the best partitioning programs agolable for Windows. It supports mechanical discs and SSD, both internal and external, and is compatible with all popular file systems: FAT:, FAT32, NTFS, Refs, Ext2 and Ext3.
It allows you to act in various ways on partitions, resizing them, moving them, creating new ones e, of course, deleting the existing ones. It also allows you to clone disks, delete unnecessary files, convert logical drives to primary (e vice versa), convert FAT partitions to NTFS, convert MBR disks to GPT (e vice versa), increase the life of SSDs by performing their alignment and much even more. With technology Recall Partition Protection, in case of sudden interruption of changes on an NTFS partition, it prevents errors from appearing by automatically returning the partition table to its previous state.
EaseUS Partition Master is already free to download and use, but only for personal use and with discs of up to 8TB. To remove the limitations in question, you need to purchase one of the paid versions of the program: Professional (prices starting from 34,95 euros) which includes all the features of the Free version, plus the ability to create bootable WinPE disks, restore partitions, migrate operating systems, manage dynamic volumes and use comme line commes; Server (prices starting from 149 euros) which offers all the features of the Professional edition, plus repair of RAID-5 volumes.
If you want to download EaseUS Partition Master Free, connected to the official website of the program, click on the button Scarica free, type il tuo email address in the dedicated field and first click on the button Prova Partition Master Free and then on the voice Download (in the column Free of the comparative table that is proposed to you).
To download, instead, EaseUS Partition Master Professional, go to the program's ufficiale site and click on the button Free trial, to download the free trial version of the software, which gives you access to all functions but does not apply the required changes to the disk until activated, or on the Buy now [price], to purchase the license and use all the functions of the application.
With the program downloaded, open the file .exe obtained and click in sequence on the buttons Yes, Install now and Install for free (This last button should only be pressed in EaseUS Partition Master Free). Wait, therefore, for all the files necessary for the correct functioning of the program to be downloaded from the Internet e, at the end, press the button Sign up now, to finish the setup and start EaseUS Partition Master.
If you do not want to share anonymous usage statistics with EaseUS, in the first setup screen, click on the item Custom Installations and remove the check mark from the appropriate box that appears at the end of the window.
Now, to delete a partition with EaseUS Partition Master, all you have to do is select it in the main program screen, click on the button Delete present in the right sidebar and reply OK to the warning that appears on the screen.
To give final confirmation and apply the changes, then click on the button Perform 1 operation located at the top left and follow the on-screen instructions: depending on the deleted partition, you may be asked to restart the system.
For more information on EaseUS Partition Master and how it works, I invite you to conont the official website of the program.
How to delete partition on Mac
Now let's see how to delete partition on a Mac equipped with macOS 10.11 El Capitan (which at the time of writing is the latest version of the Apple operating system).
The first step you need to take is to go to the folder Other Launchpad and open the application Disk Utility (which otherwise you can also find with a quick search in Spotlight). In the window that opens, then select the name of the hard disk that contains the partition to be deleted (from the left sidebar) and click on the button Partition (located at the top) to open the disk partitioning menu.
At this point, select the partition you want to delete from pie chart you see on the screen, press the button
located at the bottom left and click on the button Apply, to complete the operation. Make sure that, in the graph, the unallocated space ends up on the primary partition of the Mac.
In case you are unable to delete a partition using the macOS Disk Utility, you can also turn to the good old man terminal. The commes to be given are the following.
- diskutil list to view the list of disks and partitions on the Mac.
- diskutil eraseVolume HFS + Blank / dev / disk0s4 to delete the partition. Instead of "/ dev / disk0s4" there must be the identifier of the disk and partition to be deleted.
- diskutil mergePartitions HFS + NAME disk0s2 disk0s4 to assign unallocated space to a partition adjacent to the deleted one. to delete the partition. Instead of "HFS +" there must be the file system used by the partition to which to allocate the unallocated space; instead of "NAME" there must be the name to be assigned to the unified partition, while instead of "disk0s2 disk0s4" there must be the identifiers of the partitions to be joined.
Alternative solutions
If your computer's operating system no longer boots correctly, you can manage disk partitions with GParted, a Linux distro that boots from CD, DVD or USB stick and allows you to manage hard disk partitions in a very simple way.
Articolo realizzato in collaboration with EaseUS.
