Can't delete unwanted System partition

Question

Hi everyone, I'm having troubles deleting an unwanted partition (D:) from my SSD. I've had a Windows 10 installed on it (D:) previously and for one reason or another it malfunctioned and I had to install a fresh copy of Windows 10. Which I did on a different partition (C:). Installation was a success. C: is now a default partition. But I can't delete the original D: now. I've tried Disk Management and Power shell, but none worked. This is a screenshot from Disk Management.

When I try to delete volume/format I get the message that I can't delete system partition and that D is in use. How is it in use and how to delete it?

Answer 1

Hi RoseIdol

The reason I asked about Msconfig is your D Drive (partition) is marked as the system drive and your C drive is not, which is very unusual of you are booting into C . .

Answer 2

Since the C partition is marked as active, the D partition should not be marked as System.  Unless there was some strange boot situation where it needed something on that partition. 

In addition to what has already been asked for, perhaps open an admin command prompt and use the command below.  Copy and paste the results.

bcdedit

Answer 3

Here it is:

Windows Boot Manager

---

identifier              {bootmgr}

device                  partition=D:

description             Windows Boot Manager

locale                  en-US

inherit                 {globalsettings}

default                 {current}

resumeobject            {66594fb7-7893-11ea-98b1-a0c3c4857918}

displayorder            {current}

toolsdisplayorder       {memdiag}

timeout                 30

Windows Boot Loader

---

identifier              {current}

device                  partition=C:

path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe

description             Windows 10

locale                  en-US

inherit                 {bootloadersettings}

recoverysequence        {66594fb9-7893-11ea-98b1-a0c3c4857918}

displaymessageoverride  Recovery

recoveryenabled         Yes

allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075

osdevice                partition=C:

systemroot              \Windows

resumeobject            {66594fb7-7893-11ea-98b1-a0c3c4857918}

nx                      OptIn

bootmenupolicy          Standard

Answer 4

Original post is updated.

Drive D: looks like holding your Windows installation and your program files. It is your System drive. Are you really sure you want to delete it?

Not delete it, as much as free all the space there, since it's almost full, and I don't need any of it. I'm okay with it staying "System" as long as I can clear all the files on it except the ones the system needs to boot.

Answer 5

Not delete it, as much as free all the space there, since it's almost full, and I don't need any of it. I'm okay with it staying "System" as long as I can clear all the files on it except the ones the system needs to boot.

You can do this to free up space:

1. Log on under an admin account.
2. Create a desktop shortcut for cmd.exe.
3. Right-click this shortcut, then left-click "Run as administrator".
4. Accept the challenge. You will get a black frame.
5. Type these commands and press Enter after each:

cd  /d  d:\

dir

(to see the existing folder names)

rd   /s  /q  "xxx"

(to permanently delete folder xxx)

and so on . . .