Reclaiming A Hard Disk Drive Partition: Merging a Primary and Extended Partition in Microsoft Windows 7

Table of Contents:

 

1. Some Dell Computers May Include Extended Partitions
2. Remove an Extended Partition and Merge it with the Primary Partition

 

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Issue 1:

Some Dell Computers May Include Extended Partitions

Some Dell computers may come from the factory with multiple partitions that may be unused or unwanted. This document details the instructions for removing the data partition and reclaiming the entire hard disk drive (HDD) for the C: partition. This document assumes that the user performing these tasks has or can elevate to Administrator privileges, because some of the following instructions require that level of access.

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Issue 2:

Remove an Extended Partition and Merge it with the Primary Partition

 

	Notice:
	This process is destructive to the extended data partition. All data there should be copied to another drive or OK to be lost. The data on the Operating System (OS) partition, C:, will not be harmed through this process.

1. 
   Click Start, the type Computer Management in the Search programs and files box, then click Computer Management open the program.
2. 
   In the Computer Management window, click Disk Management in the left-hand pane.
3. 
   In the right-hand pane, right click the volume (extended partition, not the C: partition) the user wishes to delete and click Delete Volume...
4. 
   On the Delete Simple Volume window, click Yes.
5. 
   Right-click on the newly created Free space and click Delete Partition...
6. 
   On the Disk Management window, click Yes delete the extended partition.
7. 
   In the Disk Management pane, right-click on the OS (C:) partition and click Extend Volume... to merge the newly created Unallocated Space with the primary partition.
8. 
   On the Extend Volume Wizard window, click Next.
9. 
   On the Select Disks window, no changes should be required on this step, so click Next.
10. 
    On the Completing the Extend Volume Wizard window, click Finish to return to the Disk Management window and view the newly extended OS (C:) partition.

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