How To Delete Partitions On SSD (Step-By-Step)

You may decide to delete all the partitions on your SSD for different reasons, although it may not be necessary to partition an SSD in the first place.

For example, you need to remove the partitions on an SSD when you want to install a new OS on it.

While deleting SSD partitions is straightforward, you want to be careful with the commands you enter.

Read this article to see how to remove all the partitions on your SSD safely.

How To Delete Partitions On SSD (Step-By-Step)

1. Delete SSD Partitions Using Diskpart Command

Before taking the necessary steps to delete the partitions on your SSD, get a backup of all your data, as the process will erase all the data you have on the device.

The primary way of cleaning SSD partitions is through the diskpart command.

However, you should remember to run it as an administrator because, otherwise, the system won’t allow you to complete the process.

The following steps apply to Windows 8 and later versions.

Type “CMD” in the search box on the bottom-left corner of the screen.

You’ll see “Command Prompt” as the first option on the left side of the results window.

Right-click the “Command Prompt” option and select “Run as Administrator.”

This process isn’t that different for Windows 7.

You just need to click on the “Start” menu and type “cmd” in the search box.

After cmd.exe appears on the screen, right-click it and select “Run as administrator.”

Now, type “diskpart” in the command prompt window and hit “Enter.”

To see all the disks on your computer, type “list disk” and click “Enter.”

Here, you should know which is the disk you want to reset.

Otherwise, you may end up deleting another disk and lose all your data.

You can check your disk in Disk Management if you’re not sure.

Type “Computer Management” in the search box and click on it in the search results.

On the left side of the window, find “Disk Management” and select it.

You can see a list of all the disks attached in your system names as Disk 0, Disk 1, and so on.

These disks correspond to those in the “DiskPart” window, so it should be easy for you to identify your intended disk by looking at its size and features.

Now, go back to the “DiskPart” window, type in “Select Disk” and the number of the disk, and press “Enter,”

At this point, you can erase all partitions on your SSD by typing “clean” in the DiskPart window.

This action makes your drive appear unpartitioned, as it did when you first bought and installed it.

Type “Exit” and hit “Enter” to go out of the DiskPart window.

Type “Exit” one more time and press “Enter” to exit the Command Prompt window.

2. Use Third-Party Apps To Delete SSD Partitions

If you don’t have the technical know-how and worry about not entering the commands correctly, you can use third-party programs to manage your SSD partitioning.

These tools take away the guesswork and take care of everything related to disk management.

One of these tools is the EaseUs partition manager that has both free and paid versions.

It’s an easy-to-use tool that helps you take care of disk partitioning or deleting partitions in easy steps and a few clicks.

You can also use this tool to copy and clone entire disks to another disk and resize or move your partitions.

You can download the free tool here, and after getting a backup of all your data, open the software to start the process of deleting the partitions.

Select the SSD and right-click on it to see the “Wipe Data” option.

After clicking the option, the whole disk will be wiped out.

Alternatively, you could select each partition individually and right-click on it.

Choose the “Wipe Data” option and click OK.

Click on “Execute Operation” to start deleting the partition and then click “Apply” after making sure the changes are what you want.

Another useful tool is AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional that you can download here.

It also allows you to manage your disks and partitions in a hassle-free and straightforward way.

This tool has a user-friendly and clutter-free interface that helps you remove partitions on any disk.

After installing and running the software, you can see a list of all disks and partitions on the computer.

It even shows you any hidden recovery partition that you can’t see in the device manager.

Select your SSD, and right-click on the partitions you want to delete.

Click on the “Delete Partition,” and you’ll see a pop-up window that gives you two options.

You can delete the partitions quickly without wiping data or choose the second option that wipes all data on the partition.

After choosing your desired option, go back to the main interface and click “Apply” to proceed with the deletion process.

Repeat for all the partitions in the SSD to de-partition it.

3. How To Remove One Partition On The SSD

You can delete one or more partitions on your SSD if you don’t want to erase all of them.

Go to “Disk Management” via the method explained above (by typing “Computer Management” in the search box).

Look at the list of disks shown in the “Disk Management” window and select the disk corresponding to your SSD.

Now, check all the partitions available for that disk and right-click the partition you wish to delete.

Select “Delete Volume” to erase that specific partition.

You can also delete all partitions by selecting all of them if the DiskPart method doesn’t work.

Problems While Deleting SSD Partitions

Sometimes when you try to delete the partitions on your SSD, you may run into problems that prevent you from completing the process successfully.

There’s no need to worry as the problems are minor, and you can address them with a few simple steps.

Here are the common problems:

1. Permissions And Privileges

As mentioned above, when you start deleting the SSD partitions, the first thing to make sure of is that you have administrative privileges.

If not, the system will not allow you to proceed.

You may receive an error message stating that you don’t have permission to complete the task.

Make sure to sign in with an account that has administrator privileges and check if the DiskPart command is launched as an administrator.

Check the title bar and make sure it defaults to C:\Windows\system32>.

2. Trouble Writing To Disk

Another trouble you may run into is when the system tells you it can’t write to the disk.

That’s not a serious issue and may be due to weak connections.

Check the SSD’s connection and make sure it’s properly connected to your computer.

Change the connection types to see if it helps.

For example, replace the external caddy with a SATA or USB cable and try again.

This solution should make the error message go away.

3. Greyed-Out “Delete Volume” Option

Suppose you’re halfway through the partition removal process via Disk Management and look for the “Delete Volume” option.

This problem may be because one of the partitions contains the Page File.

Since the Page File is essential in your system, you can’t delete your SSD partitions if they contain that file.

You need to first manage the Page File.

To delete the page file, type “View advanced system settings” in the search bar and click on it when it appears in the search results.

Click on the “Advanced” tab and select “Settings” for performance.

Look at the new window, click on the “Advanced” tab, and select “Change.”

Remove the checkmark next to “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives” and highlight SSD.

Click “No Paging File” and select “Set.”

Hit “Apply” and then “OK” on all the opened windows.

Restart your system and check if the problem goes away.

4. How To Delete The Recovery Partition On SSD

A recovery partition is a specifically allocated partition on an HDD or SSD that restores the operating system’s factory settings if you experience any system failure.

Since it doesn’t have a drive letter, it may get hidden inside the SSD, and when you remove the partitions, it may remain there.

In addition, when you update your Windows, it creates a new recovery partition.

That means you have as many recovery partitions as the number of times you’ve updated your Windows.

That’s because there’s not enough free space in the system reserved partition or the recovery partition.

This instruction comes in handy whenever you update your Windows because you can delete the old recovery partition to free up space.

Here’s how to delete the recovery partition using the DiskPart utility:

Enter “Command Prompt” in the search bar and open the Command Prompt window.

Type “diskpart” in the command prompt window.

Type “list disk” to see the list of disks installed on your system.

You should know the number of the disk assigned to your SSD.

Select it and type “list volume.”

Here, you’ll see the list of partitions on the SSD, and the recovery partition is labeled as “Recovery Pa.”

Now type “select volume #” and replace # with the partition number you want to delete.

You’ll see the message “disk # is now the selected disk.”

Now, if the partition is hidden, you need to use another command to delete it.

That’s the same command you use for deleting the OEM partition, too.

After choosing the partition to delete, type “delete partition override.”

This way, you can delete the hidden recovery partition safely.

Alternatively, you could use the third-party disk management tools mentioned above. They automatically take care of deleting hidden recovery partitions.

5. How To Delete SSD Partitions On Mac

Deleting partitions with Mac is different from Windows.

The default file system format for mac is Apple File System (APFS), which doesn’t require partitioning your SSD in the first place.

It has a specific space management style that creates several APFS volumes inside a single partition.

That said, some users choose to partition their SSDs in macOS.

They can do it with Disk Utility and Boot Camp Assistant, which is Apple’s recommended method for partitioning if users want to install Windows.

The first thing to remember when you delete SSD partitions on a Mac is that you can’t use Disk Utility to delete the partitions you’ve created with Boot Camp Assistant.

With that in mind, let’s explore how to delete partitions on Mac using Disk Utility:

After getting a backup of all your data on the SSD, click on the Launchpad icon in the Dock and type “disk utility” in the search bar.

Click on the “Disk Utility” icon.

Now, select the SSD in the sidebar and hit “Partition” in the toolbar.

Click “Apply.”

If you want to delete the partition through the APFS, go to the Apple File System Space Sharing dialog and click “Partition.”

You’ll see a pie chart showing all the partitions on the SSD.

Click the ones you want to delete and hit the “Delete” button.

Click “Apply.”

You’ll see a Partition Device dialog that you should read carefully and if everything is okay, click “Partition.”

After the system finishes the process, click “Done.”

Should You Partition Your SSD?

Many people may consider getting an SSD and storing their OS to improve their system’s performance.

In such cases, partitioning the SSD doesn’t seem necessary since the OS is the only thing stored on the SSD.

However, with the size of SSDs growing increasingly, you can store many different things on your SSD and may wonder if you should partition your SSD like you do HDDs.

Does partitioning affect your SSD’s performance?

You don’t need to treat your SSD like an HDD, as they have different designs and features.

The HDD plates that store data on themselves have different transfer rates.

If you partition your HDD and store your operating system and other files and data on others, you’ll improve its performance greatly.

On the other hand, an SSD doesn’t feature any moving mechanical parts and keeps data on memory chips.

Since they have the same transfer rates, it doesn’t matter where you store your data and operating system.

That’s why partitioning your SSD won’t affect its performance, as it already has a unified structure with the same performance in different components.

Plus, the main consideration for partitioning greatly emphasizes the size of the partition over the numbers.

Therefore, you want to have fewer but larger partitions.

How To Reinitialize Your SSD After Deleting The Partitions

After you delete the partitions on your SSD, you may need to reinitialize the SSD on your system because it goes back to its factory settings.

Hit Windows + R keys together and type “diskmgmt.msc” in the box.

Click “OK” to open Disk management.

If you have a Windows 7 system, you can launch Disk Management by right-clicking “My Computer” and selecting “Manage” to open Disk Management.

Find your SSD in the list of disks and right-click on it.

Select “Initialize Disk.”

If the SSD is listed as offline, select “Online” after right-clicking and then, click “Initialize Disk.”

Now, an “Initialize Disk” dialog box opens in which you need to select your SSD to initialize.

Click “OK” to choose the default partition style, either GPT or MBR.

Alternatively, you could use the DiskPart command to initialize your SSD.

Type “diskpart” in the search box on the bottom right corner of the screen and click on the first option in the search results.

Type the following commands and press “Enter” after typing each one:

List disk

Select disk # (you should replace # with the number assigned to your SSD)

Convert MBR/GPT (depending on which one you prefer).