How to Remove a Hard Drive Partition
The ability to partition hard drives can provide a range of benefits. But removing a hard drive partition can be difficult if you don't know what you are doing. With a few simple steps, this article will show you how easy it is to remove a hard drive partition without losing information or potentially damaging your drive or OS installation.
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Instructions
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Back up any data on the partition that you wish to remove, as this process will erase any data in the removed partition. To access a particular partition, select "My Computer" from your Start menu (accessed with the start button located in the bottom left of your screen), and double click the desired partition in your list of hard drives.
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Close all programs once you have backed up all your data. Right click on "My Computer" in your Start Menu and select "Manage." If using Vista, select "Continue" when prompted for permission.
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Select "Disk Management" from the left-hand menu. This will open the disk manager interface and may take just a minute.
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Select your desired partition by left clicking on it once. Then right click on it and select "Delete Volume" (labeled "Delete Partition" in XP). You will be prompted as to whether or not you want to continue and warned that all data will be lost.
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Select "Yes" at the prompt, and your partition will now be deleted.
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Tips & Warnings
Do not delete partitions if you have not backed up the data on them. You will lose potentially vital information.
