Deleting system/protected/recovery partitions from SSD [SOLVED]

The various system vendors (Dell, Lenovo, HP, etc.) generally use a large number of partitions on their SSDs and HDD. Here is an example from a recent Windows 10 laptop with a 256GB m.2 SSD boot drive:

Partition 1 Recovery
Partition 2 System
Partition 3 OEM
Partition 4 Reserved
Partition 5 Primary
Partition 6 Recovery

Wow, that is a ton of partitions!

Normally that many partitions is not a big deal, but if you want to quickly re-purpose an old boot SSD into a data SSD it is nice to be able to delete those partitions so you can utilize ALL the space. Here is a quick command prompt session showing the deletion of all those partitions. Make sure you select the right disk when performing any of these steps!

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7601
Copyright (C) 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: XWING

DISKPART> list disk

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
——– ————- ——- ——- — —
Disk 0 Online 119 GB 0 B
Disk 1 Online 476 GB 0 B
Disk 2 No Media 0 B 0 B
Disk 3 Online 7388 MB 0 B
Disk 4 Online 4657 GB 0 B *
Disk 5 Online 238 GB 228 GB *

DISKPART> SELECT DISK 5

Disk 5 is now the selected disk.

 

DISKPART> LIST PARTITION

Partition ### Type Size Offset
————- —————- ——- ——-
Partition 1 Recovery 1000 MB 1024 KB
Partition 2 System 260 MB 1001 MB
Partition 3 OEM 1000 MB 1261 MB
Partition 4 Reserved 128 MB 2261 MB
Partition 6 Recovery 8191 MB 230 GB

DISKPART> SELECT PARTITION 1

Partition 1 is now the selected partition.

 

DISKPART> DELETE PARTITION OVERRIDE

DiskPart successfully deleted the selected partition.

 

DISKPART> LIST PARTITION

Partition ### Type Size Offset
————- —————- ——- ——-
Partition 2 System 260 MB 1001 MB
Partition 3 OEM 1000 MB 1261 MB
Partition 4 Reserved 128 MB 2261 MB
Partition 6 Recovery 8191 MB 230 GB

DISKPART> SELECT PARTITION 2

Partition 2 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> DELETE PARTITION OVERRIDE

DiskPart successfully deleted the selected partition.

DISKPART> SELECT PARTITION 3

Partition 3 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> DELETE PARTITION OVERRIDE

DiskPart successfully deleted the selected partition.

DISKPART> SELECT PARTITION 6

Partition 6 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> DELETE PARTITION OVERRIDE

DiskPart successfully deleted the selected partition.

DISKPART> LIST PARTITION

Partition ### Type Size Offset
————- —————- ——- ——-
Partition 4 Reserved 128 MB 2261 MB

DISKPART> SELECT PARTITION 4

Partition 4 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> DELETE PARTITION OVERRIDE

DiskPart successfully deleted the selected partition.

DISKPART> LIST PARTITION

There are no partitions on this disk to show.

DISKPART>EXIT

That’s it, now the drive is unallocated and ready for adding a volume and formatting 🙂

Partitions removed!

Partitions removed!

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