Unable to delete partitions via Windows DISKPART command.

[aleichliter]

I have two partitions on a secondary hard drive that I no longer need, but cannot delete them using the "delete partition override" command after selecting one of the mentioned partitions. When I attempt to delete them, it says, "The operation is not supported by the object. The specified command or parameters are not supported on this system." Wiping the entire drive is not an option, since there is 2.6 TB of data in the primary partition with nowhere to relocate it.

 

[nukemaster]

Does disk management(diskmgmt.msc) allow it?

3rd party software like Partition Master by EaseUS should be able to do it.
http://www.partition-tool.com/

EDIT -WARNING!
Do not move the start location of a Windows partition as that will cause startup issues. Messing with System Reserved, uEFI, Restore or other required partitions can cause issues with a system.

 

[aleichliter]

Does disk management(diskmgmt.msc) allow it?

3rd party software like Partition Master by EaseUS should be able to do it.
http://www.partition-tool.com/

EDIT -WARNING!
Do not move the start location of a Windows partition as that will cause startup issues. Messing with System Reserved, uEFI, Restore or other required partitions can cause issues with a system.

Thanks for the suggestion, but the program is not showing the two partitions that I mentioned. It does show 60 GB of unallocated space though, which I can't seem to do anything with.

 

[nukemaster]

I wonder if some of this software does not deal well with dynamic disks. Unfortunately, I never use them.

The FREE version of Partition master does not support dynamic disks as far as I know.

Does windows build in diskmgmt.msc happen to show anything interesting.

I am a bit worried about recommending other options because of the pure amount of data you have. I have used Linux to modify Windows partition with gparted, but I never had dynamic disks.

 

[aleichliter]

I wonder if some of this software does not deal well with dynamic disks. Unfortunately, I never use them.

The FREE version of Partition master does not support dynamic disks as far as I know.

Does windows build in diskmgmt.msc happen to show anything interesting.

I am a bit worried about recommending other options because of the pure amount of data you have. I have used Linux to modify Windows partition with gparted, but I never had dynamic disks.

The hard drive was was simple earlier this morning, but when trying to extend the partition to include the unallocated space, it turned into a dynamic drive, despite the extension failing due to the other partitions.
This is what the built in partition manager looks like:

Right clicking on the two partitions only gives me the option to get help through Windows.

 

[nukemaster]

I take it you can not assign a letter to the 9.54 gigabyte partition and see on it?

Windows will not allow you to extent the partition unless the unallocated space is right next to it.

 

[aleichliter]

I take it you can not assign a letter to the 9.54 gigabyte partition and see on it?

Windows will not allow you to extent the partition unless the unallocated space is right next to it.

Correct, my only option is getting help, where the primary partition has many options. The main reason that I wanted to get rid of these two partitions was so that I could extend the main one to the unallocated space, which is why I ended up trying the DISKPART command.

 

[nukemaster]

I am not sure what stopped you.

I am unaware of how to unlock those partitions for removal and extending.

Some 3rd party software of linux distro's may be able to do this, but with so many files it is just not a good idea.

I hope someone else pops in with a better idea because I am kind of stumped.

I wish I could be of more help.

 

[drtweak]

Get Pargon Partition Manager Free.

Install it.

When you open it click on the Resize Partitions (Orange Option)

It will scan your hard drive.

Click Next. it will then show you your disk.

Select the 9.54 GB partition in the list (should put a red box around it and the unallocated space) and click next.

First take note of the exact size in MB the 9.54 partition is. You will now have a slider bar. Take the size of the left volume and max it out. It should Eat up all the unallocated space (We want it to do this right now) click next and Yes apply changed.

Once done lets go back in to the same thing over again. This time click on the C drive partition so that the Red box is around the C Drive and the new almost 70GB partition. Hit next. Next on the right volume size type in the exact size of the 9.54 GB partition. It should then shrink that and add the 60GB to the C drive.

Hit next, and yes. This one will take a while long since it has to move all that data over.

Let me know if this works.

 

[aleichliter]

Get Pargon Partition Manager Free.

Install it.

When you open it click on the Resize Partitions (Orange Option)

It will scan your hard drive.

Click Next. it will then show you your disk.

Select the 9.54 GB partition in the list (should put a red box around it and the unallocated space) and click next.

First take note of the exact size in MB the 9.54 partition is. You will now have a slider bar. Take the size of the left volume and max it out. It should Eat up all the unallocated space (We want it to do this right now) click next and Yes apply changed.

Once done lets go back in to the same thing over again. This time click on the C drive partition so that the Red box is around the C Drive and the new almost 70GB partition. Hit next. Next on the right volume size type in the exact size of the 9.54 GB partition. It should then shrink that and add the 60GB to the C drive.

Hit next, and yes. This one will take a while long since it has to move all that data over.

Let me know if this works.

Thank you for the suggestion, but when I hit the orange button it gives me this message:

 

[drtweak]

Yea was afraid you might get that.

Can we get a screen shot of your entire disk managment please?

 

[aleichliter]

Yea was afraid you might get that.

Can we get a screen shot of your entire disk managment please?

I hope is what you were asking for.

 

[drtweak]

Do you know if your PC is a UEFI Boot or a MBR Boot? If you don't know go into your BIOS look under the Boot setting and it should say either UEFI, UEFI with Legacy Support, or Legacy (something along those lines)

If it is UEFI or UEFI with Legacy support sounds like you installed windows with other drives attached and it moved the UEFI Partition to that drive in which case not sure what to do their.

If this drive came out of another PC then that is a different story. If that is the case we want to move all that data off if you can, and we need to clean the drive and reformat it. THe thing is the 9.54 partition we should be able to move. THe EFI system partition we should still be able to move I have not moved one before.

Get back to me with exactly how the PC is booting, was that hard drive installed when you installed windows, did it come form another machine, and also any reason why the Media is set to Dynamic?

 

[aleichliter]

Do you know if your PC is a UEFI Boot or a MBR Boot? If you don't know go into your BIOS look under the Boot setting and it should say either UEFI, UEFI with Legacy Support, or Legacy (something along those lines)

If it is UEFI or UEFI with Legacy support sounds like you installed windows with other drives attached and it moved the UEFI Partition to that drive in which case not sure what to do their.

If this drive came out of another PC then that is a different story. If that is the case we want to move all that data off if you can, and we need to clean the drive and reformat it. THe thing is the 9.54 partition we should be able to move. THe EFI system partition we should still be able to move I have not moved one before.

Get back to me with exactly how the PC is booting, was that hard drive installed when you installed windows, did it come form another machine, and also any reason why the Media is set to Dynamic?

I did some searching in my BIOS, but couldn't find what you are talking about. They are UEFI BIOS, if that makes a difference. These drives have only been used with this computer, and Windows was originally on the 1TB hard drive before I moved it to the smaller SSD. The Media drive was set to dynamic the moment I tried to expand the primary partition to include the unallocated space. It is also worth mentioning that the large chunk of allocated space was a partition with Ubuntu installed on it, and the ~10 GB partition was the swap space. Here is a picture of the boot settings in my BIOS:

Thanks for the help.

 

[drtweak]

Ahhhhh that explains everything.

When you cloned the OS to the SSD you didn't clone it over with the UEFI Boot partition as well.

So this what I think we need to do.

First that 9.54 GB partition. Give it a drive letter and see if we can see what is on it and if we need it. The EFI System partition we FOR SURE need it and we will need to try to move it to the SSD. If we can't not a huge deal so long as the 3TB always stays there. Once you take that 3TB out because that EFI partition is the boot partition.

So lets find out what is on that 9.54 GB partition first. It doesn't give a Format type (NTFS/FAT32) so I'm wondering if that could be a partition from the Linux.

We may not be able to use partition program to clone these partition so we have may to do this.

Use Paragon to free up the needed space. Then take a program like Macrium Reflect and see if we can image JUST that partition and save it to pretty much anywhere. Then restore that partition to the new free space.

 

[nukemaster]

I am not sure how much of an issue it is on uEFI setups, but a program called EasyBCD that allows editing of the boot loader. You can even deploy it onto a drive.
http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/

The reason something like this could be needed would be because once you move the start location of the Windows partition, you would have to edit the boot loader or the system will not boot.

I am still unsure how you are going to get that 9.something gigabyte partition moved or removed(since all software seems to either not see it or not allow editing.).

Since you seem to have your boot loader on that drive, your system may not even start Windows with that drive disconnected(you can test this pretty easy). If you happen to be able to boot without it(I have had systems with the bootloader on the normal drive before and even deployed one with EasyBCD).

We now have 2 concerns. Your data and the ability to start the system.

 

[aleichliter]

Ahhhhh that explains everything.

When you cloned the OS to the SSD you didn't clone it over with the UEFI Boot partition as well.

So this what I think we need to do.

First that 9.54 GB partition. Give it a drive letter and see if we can see what is on it and if we need it. The EFI System partition we FOR SURE need it and we will need to try to move it to the SSD. If we can't not a huge deal so long as the 3TB always stays there. Once you take that 3TB out because that EFI partition is the boot partition.

So lets find out what is on that 9.54 GB partition first. It doesn't give a Format type (NTFS/FAT32) so I'm wondering if that could be a partition from the Linux.

We may not be able to use partition program to clone these partition so we have may to do this.

Use Paragon to free up the needed space. Then take a program like Macrium Reflect and see if we can image JUST that partition and save it to pretty much anywhere. Then restore that partition to the new free space.

Will this allow me to delete the partition though? I don't think there is anything in the swap partition since swap is just a reserve pool for storing active memory. I don't think I can give the partition a drive letter either.

 

[drtweak]

are you use the 9.54 partition was the swap partition?

 

[aleichliter]

are you use the 9.54 partition was the swap partition?

Yes, and I wouldn't have remembered if it weren't for one of the programs recommended to me specifically labeling the partition as Linux swap.

 

[drtweak]

Then we can delete that without issue and we just have to move the EFI partition to the SSD then making it easier to deal with. That explains why most program can'd do it. You should be able to use the Disk part Partition Delete override on that partition though.

 

[nukemaster]

if it was a linux partition maybe gparted can deal with it.

It comes with most live distributions of Linux.

 

[aleichliter]

Then we can delete that without issue and we just have to move the EFI partition to the SSD then making it easier to deal with. That explains why most program can'd do it. You should be able to use the Disk part Partition Delete override on that partition though.

Sadly that command works for neither of the partitions.

 

[drtweak]

well we do NOT want to delete the EFI partition. That will more than likely render the PC unbootable.

Try what Nukemaster said. Get a live linux and run it off a thumb drive or DVD and use its disk management. Their might be something else going on here as well as windows SHOULD be able to delete that partition without issue.

 

[nukemaster]

To see what is going on, it may be worth trying to start the system with the hard drive disconnected to see if it does or does not start.

Trying to clone that uEFI partition to the SSD should work(and may not even require BCD editing since it already points to the start of the SSD.) You still want this to be fully tested before removing it from the hard drive.

 

[aleichliter]

well we do NOT want to delete the EFI partition. That will more than likely render the PC unbootable.

Try what Nukemaster said. Get a live linux and run it off a thumb drive or DVD and use its disk management. Their might be something else going on here as well as windows SHOULD be able to delete that partition without issue.

Thanks to the both of you! I ran gparted from a live iso on a USB. I was able to delete the swap partition and extend the main partition over to the unallocated space. I also unplugged the D: drive and was able to boot into Windows without any problems. Does this mean that I am safe to delete the EFI partition in the same manner?