{"id":1808,"date":"2016-06-23T07:09:16","date_gmt":"2016-06-23T12:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swildow.darktech.org\/wp\/?p=1808"},"modified":"2016-06-23T07:09:16","modified_gmt":"2016-06-23T12:09:16","slug":"how-to-remove-an-efi-system-partition-or-gpt-protective-partition-from-a-drive-in-windows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/?p=1808","title":{"rendered":"How to Remove an EFI System Partition or GPT Protective Partition From a Drive in Windows"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bd\">\n<div class=\"yui-ge\">\n<div class=\"yui-u first\">\n<div id=\"htgArticle\" class=\"content\">\n<div id=\"post-215349\" class=\"thepost\">\n<h2><a title=\"How to Remove an EFI System Partition or GPT Protective Partition From a Drive in Windows\" href=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/215349\/how-to-remove-an-efi-system-partition-or-gpt-protective-partition-from-a-drive-in-windows\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">How to Remove an EFI System Partition or GPT Protective Partition From a Drive in Windows<\/a><\/h2>\n<div class=\"thecontent\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-215366\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/ximg_553858095354b.png.pagespeed.gp+jp+jw+pj+js+rj+rp+rw+ri+cp+md.ic.wrPfBNNAiv.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There are several reasons why you might end up with a protected partition you can\u2019t delete on a drive. For example, Macs create 200 MB partitions at the start of an external drive when you set up Time Machine on it.<\/p>\n<p>The Windows DIsk Management tool can\u2019t normally delete these partitions, and you\u2019ll see the \u201cDelete Volume\u201d option grayed out. There\u2019s still a way to remove the partition, but it\u2019s hidden.<\/p>\n<div id=\"div-thetop1\"><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-9173525300015284\" data-ad-slot=\"1477883008\" data-adsbygoogle-status=\"done\"><ins id=\"aswift_0_expand\"><ins id=\"aswift_0_anchor\"><iframe id=\"aswift_0\" name=\"aswift_0\" width=\"650\" height=\"141\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/ins><\/ins><\/ins><\/div>\n<h3>Caution!<\/h3>\n<p>First of all, don\u2019t try to do this on your Mac\u2019s internal system drive. Yes, if you use Boot Camp on your Mac and boot into Windows, you\u2019ll see an \u201cEFI System Partition\u201d \u00a0at the start of your Mac\u2019s internal drive. Leave it alone. This partition is necessary, and you shouldn\u2019t try to remove it. It\u2019s locked for a reason.<\/p>\n<p>However, Mac OS X also creates an EFI System Partition or GPT Protective Partition at the beginning of an external drive when you set up <a href=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/192533\/how-to-back-up-your-mac-and-restore-files-with-time-machine\/\">Time Machine<\/a>. If you\u2019re still using the drive for Time Machine backups, leave that 200 MB partition\u00a0alone.<\/p>\n<p>The one time when you\u2019ll want to do this is when you were previously using a drive for Time Machine backups, but you\u2019re done with that and want to use it for something else. The 200 MB partition at the\u00a0beginning of the\u00a0drive\u00a0will stubbornly refuse to be deleted, and you\u2019ll have to go beyond the Disk Management tool to delete it.<\/p>\n<p>This process will actually wipe the entire external drive. You can\u2019t simply remove the 200 MB partition\u00a0and leave any other partitions alone \u2014 you\u2019ll\u00a0be wiping the drive\u2019s contents and starting afresh with a new partition table. If you have any important files on the drive, be sure you have copies of them before you continue. If they\u2019re in Time Machine backup format and you don\u2019t have access to a Mac, you can <a href=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/212505\/how-to-restore-files-from-a-time-machine-backup-on-windows\/\">restore Time Machine backups on Windows<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Note the Disk Number<\/h3>\n<div class=\"relatedside\"><span class=\"relatedtext\">RELATED ARTICLE<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"relateditemwrap\">\n<div class=\"relateditemimg\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/school\/using-windows-admin-tools-like-a-pro\/lesson4\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/thumbcache\/120\/80\/4d931083733d907c2d2962a1ac0d37b2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/xclip_image001.jpg.pagespeed.gp+jp+jw+pj+js+rj+rp+rw+ri+cp+md.ic.EUywn73MMc.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/school\/using-windows-admin-tools-like-a-pro\/lesson4\/\">Understanding Hard Drive Partitioning with Disk Management<\/a><br \/>\nIn today\u2019s edition of Geek School, we\u2019re going to talk about how to use Disk Management\u2026 but we\u2019re going to&#8230;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/215349\/how-to-remove-an-efi-system-partition-or-gpt-protective-partition-from-a-drive-in-windows\/\"> [Read Article]<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>You can\u2019t actually\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/school\/using-windows-admin-tools-like-a-pro\/lesson4\/\">use the Disk Management tool<\/a> for most of this, but you can use it for one thing. Note the number of the disk you want to remove the partition from. For example, in the\u00a0screenshot below, the external drive we want to wipe the partition from is \u201cDisk 2.\u201d It\u2019s actually the third one in the list, but that\u2019s because the first disk is \u201cDisk 0\u201d and the system counts from 0. Remember this number for later.<\/p>\n<p>If you haven\u2019t open the DIsk Management tool yet, you can do it by right-clicking in the bottom-right corner of the screen on Windows 8 or 8.1 and selecting Disk Management. On any version of Windows, you can press\u00a0Windows Key + R, type\u00a0diskmgmt.msc into the\u00a0Run dialog, and press\u00a0Enter.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-215355\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/ximg_553853a69ea89.png.pagespeed.gp+jp+jw+pj+js+rj+rp+rw+ri+cp+md.ic.GDvgVDCdZO.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Wipe the Drive\u2019s Partition Table<\/h3>\n<p>You\u2019ll now need to wipe the drive\u2019s partition table entirely. This will remove the 200 MB partition as well as all the other partitions on the disk, erasing the drive. You\u2019ll lose everything on it, and you\u2019ll have to re-partition it later.<\/p>\n<p>To do this, open a Command Prompt window as Administrator. On Windows 8 or 8.1, right-click in the bototm-left corner of your screen and select \u201cCommand Prompt (Admin).\u201d On Windows 7, search the Start menu for the \u201cCommand Prompt\u201d shortcut, right-click it, and select \u201cRun as Administrator.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-215356\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/ximg_553854307b8b2.png.pagespeed.gp+jp+jw+pj+js+rj+rp+rw+ri+cp+md.ic.L3-x64TbnF.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Type the following command and press Enter to run it:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>diskpart<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This launches the diskpart command-line utility used for advanced disk partitioning tasks. You\u2019ll see the prompt change to \u201cDISKPART\u201d after you do.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-215358\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/img_5538551d039dc.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Type the following command to view a list of attached disks on your computer. Note the number of the disk with the 200 MB partition. If you used the Disk Management utility to find this number earlier, it should be the same number:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>list disk<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-215360\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/ximg_553855b7c0ff0.png.pagespeed.gp+jp+jw+pj+js+rj+rp+rw+ri+cp+md.ic.Pyrj_m6vm3.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Type the following command, replacing # with the number of the disk you want to wipe:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>select disk #<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>For example, the disk we want to wipe in the example here is Disk 2. Therefore, we\u2019d type \u201cselect disk 2.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Be very careful that you select the correct disk number. You wouldn\u2019t want to accidentally wipe the wrong disk.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-215361\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/ximg_5538564b10c1d.png.pagespeed.gp+jp+jw+pj+js+rj+rp+rw+ri+cp+md.ic.OxzZiUiEgL.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Warning<\/strong>: The below command effectively wipes the drive. You\u2019ll lose all the files on any partition on the drive. Be sure you\u2019ve selected the correct disk number before continuing!<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, run the following command to remove all partition information from the drive. This\u00a0\u201ccleans\u201d all partition information from the\u00a0drive, effectively wiping it and turning it into one big, unpartitioned chunk of space:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>clean<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-215364\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/ximg_55385791c929c.png.pagespeed.gp+jp+jw+pj+js+rj+rp+rw+ri+cp+md.ic.U5iejxLb3S.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After the clean command finishes, you\u2019ll be done. All the partitions \u2014 including that pesky 200 MB protected partition \u2014 will be wiped from the\u00a0drive. You can leave the diskpart prompt with the following command, and then close the Command Prompt window:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>exit<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-215365\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/ximg_553857ba1f5ff.png.pagespeed.gp+jp+jw+pj+js+rj+rp+rw+ri+cp+md.ic.aAOWDR9s31.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Create New Partitions<\/h3>\n<div class=\"relatedside\"><span class=\"relatedtext\">RELATED ARTICLE<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"relateditemwrap\">\n<div class=\"relateditemimg\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/193669\/whats-the-difference-between-gpt-and-mbr-when-partitioning-a-drive\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/thumbcache\/120\/80\/7071f3627e948971bae1047bdf6df913\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/xhard-disk-drive.jpg.pagespeed.gp+jp+jw+pj+js+rj+rp+rw+ri+cp+md.ic.i6i3UGMMJn.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/193669\/whats-the-difference-between-gpt-and-mbr-when-partitioning-a-drive\/\">What\u2019s the Difference Between GPT and MBR When Partitioning a Drive?<\/a><br \/>\nSet up a new disk on Windows 8.x or 10\u00a0and you\u2019ll be asked whether you want to use MBR or&#8230;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/193669\/whats-the-difference-between-gpt-and-mbr-when-partitioning-a-drive\/\"> [Read Article]<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Head back to\u00a0the Disk Management utility\u00a0and you\u2019ll see the drive is one big chunk of \u201cUnallocated\u201d space. Right-click the drive\u2019s name and select \u201cInitialize Disk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Choose either the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/193669\/whats-the-difference-between-gpt-and-mbr-when-partitioning-a-drive\/\">GPT or MBR partition style<\/a>for the disk and it\u2019ll begin to function like any other disk. You can then create the partitions you want on the disk, free from 200 MB partition that appeared stuck to the front of the disk before.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-215367\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/ximg_5538586212e68.png.pagespeed.gp+jp+jw+pj+js+rj+rp+rw+ri+cp+md.ic.CsCH-ANkuI.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>If you ever end up with a drive containing partitions you can\u2019t delete \u2014 or if you just want to start the\u00a0partitioning over from scratch \u2014 use the diskpart command to \u201cclean\u201d it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How to Remove an EFI System Partition or GPT Protective Partition From a Drive in Windows There are several reasons why you might end up with a protected partition you can\u2019t delete on a drive. For example, Macs create 200 &#8230; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/?p=1808\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windows"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1808"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1810,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1808\/revisions\/1810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}