Question: There’s an ‘OEM Partition’ in my hard drive, which I would like to remove to gain more space, but there’s no way I can delete it. I opened Disk Management and right-clicked on the partition, all that came up was a help icon, no delete key. What should I do to get rid of OEM partition?

What is OEM Partition?

OEM partitions are usually made by many manufacturers such as Dell, Lenovo or HP, and mostly they contain functions about system recovery or factory restore data. If you don’t plan to restore the device to factory setting any more, or if you have already backed up system and disk, you can choose to delete the OEM partitions to extend more space.

However, the built-in graphical user-interface Disk Management tool cannot help you delete that OEM partition in Windows 7, 8, 10, XP and Vista. In that case, you need to delete OEM partition via CMD.

About Diskpart in Command Prompt

Diskpart is a kind of tool that manages hard disk and partitions. It has many functions such as create partition, delete partition, merge (extend) partition, etc. in theory, it totally can replace some third-party software such as partition magician and so on. In addition, Diskpart has some functions that partition magician like software does not have, such as setting dynamic disk, mirrored volumes, etc. What’s more, there is no need to restart a computer to execute the pending operations after setting. It sounds convenient and time-saving, doesn’t it? Following details the specific steps of using this tool in Windows.

How to Delete an OEM Partition with Diskpart?

In the first place, hit Windows + R key combo to start Run box. Type “diskpart” and hit Enter.

Next, type following commands in turn and press Enter after each move:

  • *list disk (display all disks on your computer)
  • *select disk n (n is the disk that contains OEM partition)
  • *list partition (display all volumes on the hard drive)
  • *select partition n (n is the OEM partition that you want to delete)
  • *delete partition override
  • *exit

Note: Diskpart take effect instantly. Make sure you have selected the right partition. Otherwise, you may delete other partition accidentally. If delete the wrong partition, you can do partition recovery to get that partition back.

Better Solution on How to Delete OEM Partition on Hard Drive

Diskpart.exe is a Windows built-in disk management tool which provides more functions than GUI Disk Management. But to some people, it seems that it is not convenient to operate, even  a great number of people don’t understand the commands above. Although it has more advantages over some third-party software, Due to its non-graphical interface, this tool is hard for common users to use. Diskpart is more suited for people who have professional knowledge about computer and program rather than common users. In this condition, some third-party software are easier and safer to operate. you don’t need to learn professional computer terminology or search for specified commands. some software offer user freeware to manage disk and partition., such as AOMEI Partition Assistant. On the Internet, you can search for that and download for free.

Delete OEM Partition in Windows Using AOMEI Partition Assistant

In the market, some software should be paid for users. AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard is totally free for Windows commercial and personal users. It works in Windows 10, 8, 8.1, 7, XP, Vista and has user-friendly interface. Comparing to Diskpart, this software is more suitable for common users. Following will walk you through the steps of deleting an OEM partition.

Step 1: Download, install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant standard edition. Right-click partition you want to delete, and select “Delete Partition”.

step-1
Select “Delete Partition”

Step 2:  Select the delete method in the following dialog, there are two options:

  • *Delete partition quickly: the data which has been deleted is recoverable if you choose this option
  • *Delete partition and wipe all data to prevent data recovery: AOMEI Partition Assistant will delete the partition and wipe all data on it. The data which has been deleted will not be recovered by any data recovery software, so use with caution.

Choose whichever one based on your needs, after that click OK to continue.

step-2
 Select method to delete

 Step3: You can see the preview effect in the interface, but that’s preview effect. To save all changes, please don’t forget to click “Apply” button.

 step-3
Click Apply

You see, with the help of AOMEI Partition Assistant, it is quite easy to figure out how to delete an OEM partition. As a matter of fact, you can create a bootable device using this software to solve system partition not allowed to be formatted issue one day.