How to Remove All Partitions from a Hard Drive in Windows 10 and 11

Removing every partition from a hard drive or SSD returns it to blank, unallocated space. That’s what you want before reusing an old drive, fixing a drive that shows strange leftover partitions (EFI, recovery, or Linux), switching between MBR and GPT, or preparing a disk for a clean Windows install. Windows 10 (and 11) can do this with Disk Management or the DiskPart clean command. This guide covers both, explains which partitions Disk Management can’t delete, and shows how to make the drive usable again afterward.

Quick Answer

Open an administrator Command Prompt and type diskpart. Run list disk, then select disk N (the number of the drive you want to wipe). Then run clean. All partitions on that disk are removed. Afterward, initialize the disk in Disk Management and create a new volume.

Warning: This Erases Everything on the Drive

• Back up any files you need first. Deleting partitions removes access to all data on the drive.
• Double-check the disk number. Choosing the wrong disk erases the wrong drive. Unplug other external drives if you’re unsure.
• You can’t wipe the drive Windows is running from while Windows is running. To wipe the system drive, use Windows Setup (see below).
• BitLocker: encrypted drives can still be cleaned, but make sure you don’t need the data.

Method 1: DiskPart Clean (Fastest, Removes Protected Partitions Too)

1. Right-click Start and choose Command Prompt (Admin) or Windows PowerShell (Admin).
2. Type diskpart and press Enter. Click Yes if asked.
3. Type list disk. Identify your drive by its size.
4. Type select disk 1, replacing 1 with your disk number.
5. Optionally, type list partition to confirm these are the partitions you expect to remove.
6. Type clean and press Enter. You should see “DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk.”
7. Type exit.

clean vs. clean all

Command	What it does	Time	Use when
clean	Removes the partition table. Data remains on the disk but is not visible.	Seconds	Reusing the drive yourself
clean all	Writes zeros to every sector, making data recovery very difficult on hard drives	Hours on large drives	Selling or giving away a hard drive

For SSDs, clean all adds wear without guaranteeing a secure erase. Use the SSD maker’s Secure Erase tool, or the Windows Reset this PC option with drive cleaning, instead.

Method 2: Disk Management (Point and Click)

1. Right-click Start and choose Disk Management.
2. Find the drive in the lower pane (Disk 1, Disk 2, and so on).
3. Right-click each partition on that disk and choose Delete Volume, then click Yes.
4. Repeat until the entire disk shows as Unallocated.

Limitation: Disk Management won’t delete protected partitions such as EFI System, Recovery, or some OEM partitions. The option is greyed out, or only Help is available. Use DiskPart clean for those.

Remove All Partitions from Your Windows (System) Drive

To wipe the drive Windows is installed on, for example before a clean install:

1. Boot from a Windows 10 or 11 installation USB.
2. At the Where do you want to install Windows? screen, select each partition on the drive and click Delete, until only one Unallocated Space entry remains.
3. Alternatively, press Shift + F10 to open Command Prompt and use diskpart, select disk, and clean as described above.
4. Select the unallocated space and click Next. Setup creates the partitions it needs.

After Removing Partitions: Make the Drive Usable

1. Open Disk Management. If prompted to initialize the disk, choose GPT for most modern PCs and drives over 2 TB, or MBR for very old systems. Click OK.
2. Right-click the unallocated space and choose New Simple Volume.
3. Follow the wizard. Choose the size, a drive letter, NTFS (or exFAT to share with Macs), and a volume label.
4. Click Finish. The drive appears in File Explorer.

In DiskPart, you can do the same thing with convert gpt, create partition primary, format fs=ntfs quick, and assign.

Troubleshooting

“Virtual Disk Service error: Clean is not allowed on the disk containing the current boot, system, pagefile, crashdump or hibernation volume.”

You selected the Windows drive. Select the correct disk, or wipe the system drive from Windows Setup.

“DiskPart has encountered an error: Access is denied.”

Run Command Prompt as administrator. Also check that the drive isn’t write-protected. DiskPart’s attributes disk clear readonly removes a read-only flag.

The disk shows as “Offline” or “Not Initialized”

Right-click the disk label in Disk Management and choose Online, then Initialize Disk.

The drive’s full size doesn’t appear

MBR disks are limited to 2 TB. Clean the disk again and initialize it as GPT.

Related: Resize a partition in Windows 10.

Related: Delete a partition in Windows 11.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can deleted partitions be recovered?

After clean, data recovery tools can often rebuild partitions if nothing new has been written. After clean all on a hard drive, recovery is effectively impossible.

Is this different on Windows 11?

No. Disk Management and DiskPart work the same way in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

How do I delete just one partition?

Right-click it in Disk Management and choose Delete Volume, or in DiskPart use select partition N followed by delete partition override for protected ones.

Summary

1. Back up your data and identify the correct disk.
2. Run diskpart, list disk, select disk N, and clean.
3. Or delete each volume in Disk Management (not possible for EFI or recovery partitions).
4. Use Windows Setup to wipe the system drive.
5. Initialize the disk as GPT and create a new simple volume.