But for those that don’t require a partition on their USB drive, it can be very unpleasant. People have also reported issues of inaccessible partitions, after creating a bootable drive. If you’re also facing a similar problem with your USB drive, you’ll find the solution here in this article.
Why Delete/combine Partitions on USB?
While partitions in hard disks are recommended, we can’t say the same about USB drives. People usually use the USB drive to store specific and small amounts of data that don’t require partition. Even if you use your USB to store large amounts of data, sometimes you might want to delete or combine the partitions for various reasons.
How to Delete/Combine Partitions on USB Drive in Windows?
There are only two authentic methods in Windows to delete/combine partitions on USB drives.
To create a new proper File system To remove viruses and malware To remove write protection To delete corrupted or unnecessary partitions To remove inaccessible partitions
This article covers both of the steps in detail. Below are the methods to delete/combine partitions on a USB drive in windows:
Using Disk Management
Disk management is a dedicated Windows utility that allows you to manage internal and external drives connected to your device, including a USB drive. You can use disk management to perform advanced storage tasks like format drives, shrink or extend drive volume, create new partitions, etc.
Delete Partition
Deleting a partition will erase all the data on it. So, make sure you don’t have anything important stored on your USB drive. With that cleared out, let’s get right into how you can delete your USB drive partition using disk management. Follow the steps below after inserting your USB drive into your PC. All of the partitions on a disk will be deleted, and the space will be labeled as Unallocated. Now you need to create a partition to make the drive usable. To create a new single partition, follow the steps below: Now go to Windows Explorer and open the USB drive. You’ll be asked to format the drive. Follow the instructions to format the drive.
Merge Partition
If your USB drive was previously formatted under NTFS, you could merge partitions using unallocated space to extend an existing partition. This will allow you to delete partitions without losing the data on your USB drive. Before moving to merge partitions, delete all the unwanted partitions. Now follow the steps below:
Via Diskpart
Diskpart is another built-in utility used to manage disks using text commands. Follow the mentioned steps carefully to delete/create your USB drive using the Diskpart.
Merge Partition
As mentioned before, you can only perform this if you’ve previously formatted your USB drive under the NTFS file system. Also, make sure there is enough space to allocate. Continuing from step 6:
How Do I Format My USB Drive in Windows?
The most common method to format a USB drive is through Windows Explorer. Follow the steps below to format your USB drive:
Why Is My USB Drive Showing Only Half of Its Original Size?
This can happen if you have unallocated disk space on your USB drive. You can allocate that disk space to an existing partition or create a separate partition to solve this issue.
How to Format a USB Drive on a Mac?
To format your USB drive on a Mac, follow the steps mentioned below after inserting your USB drive: After completion, click Done and close the Disk Utility.
What to Do if the USB drive has Protected Partition?
In the case of a protected partition, you’ll get a message saying, “Cannot delete a protected partition without the force protected parameter set “, while trying to delete it. To override this, continuing from Step 7 of the Diskpart method, enter the following command: delete partition override Now you can go ahead and create a single primary partition after deleting all the unwanted partitions.
