Delete a partition from the hard drive or SSD

Do you need to delete a partition from your computer's hard drive or SSD? In this post we explain in detail how to carry out this process safely. We are going to see the different ways to do it: using the native tools the operating system and without having to install any other application.

Sometimes, after creating several partitions on our disk, we find ourselves in the need to delete some of them. Maybe we need to extend the volume of one of the primary partitions, or simply reduce the number of partitions on the disk. In any case, deleting a partition it's a simple process, both on hard drives or HDD, and on solid state drives (SSD).

How to delete a partition from a hard drive or SSD

If you have a hard drive or SSD on your computer with partitions that you no longer need, you can easily delete them. This is especially necessary if you want to extend the volume of another partition to improve its performance. Deleting a partition from your hard drive or SSD is also essential if you are going to create a new volume to install another operating system.

The best part is that you don't need to install a third-party application or program to delete a partition. All operating systems (Linux, Mac, Windows) have the Native tools to manage storage units. From these applications you can view, create or delete partitions on your computer's hard drive or SSD easily and safely.

However, before deleting a partition, it is important that you know some details related to this procedure. First of all, it is advisable that make a Backup of the files you have on the partition you want to delete. Otherwise, they will be deleted without the possibility of being recovered. Secondly, remember that the process of deleting and creating partitions can take more or less time depending on the type of disk and the number of files to be deleted.

From the Disk Management application (Windows)

Let's start by reviewing the procedure to delete a partition from the Microsoft operating system. Both Windows 10 and Windows 11 incorporate a native tool called Disk ManagementYou can access it by clicking on Start and typing the word partition.

Once you open the Disk Manager in Windows, you can see all the storage drives connected to your computer. The application also displays all the partitions into which each HDD or SSD drive is divided. To delete one of these partitions, just right-click on it and choose the option Delete volume.

You can repeat these steps for each of the partitions until you have deleted all of them. As a result, all the gigabytes on the drive will be left as unallocated space. Now you will need to create at least one new partition to assign a drive to all that space.

Obviously, The partition where the operating system is installed cannot be deleted, at least from Disk Manager. If you want to delete all the partitions on the disk, it will be necessary format windows. During the formatting process, you can create a single partition where the operating system will be installed and other files will be stored.

From Disk Utility (Mac)

If you have an Apple computer with multiple partitions on its storage drive, you can easily delete them as well. Like Windows, macOS comes with a native disk management app called Disk Utility. This application allows you to delete, add or enlarge partitions to the connected storage drives. Next, we will see the steps to delete a partition on Mac:

1. Open the Disk Utility (you can click on the Dock and type Disk Utility to find it quickly).
2. In the Disk Utility sidebar, click the disco partitioned.
3. Now, click on the option Partition, which is on the top toolbar.
4. A pie chart which shows the number of partitions on the disk and the amount of storage allocated to each.
5. In the pie chart, click on the partition you want to delete and then click the minus (-) button.
6. Finally, confirm the action by clicking on To apply.

A warning: If The minus (-) button remains dimmed after selecting the partition, it means that you cannot delete it. Sometimes this button is enabled by changing the partition format.

Using the Disks Tool (Linux)

 

Finally, let's see how to delete a partition from the hard drive or SSD from a Linux computer. Once again, Linux distributions have a native tool to manage storage units called Discs. You can use it to delete a partition, unmount it, or create multiple partitions on the HDD or SSD. In this case, let's see the steps to delete a partition using Linux Disks:

1. Open the Start menu, open the System tools and run the application Discs.
2. Choose the unit storage that is partitioned.
3. The center graph, click on the partition you want to delete.
4. Now, click on the minus (-) button, which is on the right side and is red.
5. Confirm the action and the partition will be deleted.

If you have multiple partitions you want to delete, you can repeat this simple process with each of them. In the end, the disk will be divided into two volumes: one where the operating system is installed and another where the files are stored.

Delete a partition from hard drive or SSD easily and quickly

In conclusion, we have seen how to delete a partition from the hard drive or SSD from Windows, macOS and LinuxAs you can see, each operating system has native tools that make this process much easier. Of course, there are also third-party applications for managing storage drives. The problem is that these apps are paid, and their free versions do practically the same thing as the native tools.

Therefore, the best option to delete partitions is found within each operating system. Remember that it is very important back up the files before deleting a partition. We hope that this tutorial will be useful for you to manage your storage units and make the most of them.