Unable to remove partition

[grendel0501]

I picked up a 3tb refurb HDD from Amazon.
It shows 2.8tb capacity, but about 1/3 of the drive is partitioned.
I know how to 'extend volume' the main partition in disk management, but those options are greyed out on the partition/volume I want to remove.

What am I doing wrong?

 

[stompah]

Why not try wiping it?

https://sourceforge.net/projects/dban/ If you cannot make a bootable flash drive with it download rufus and use that to make it bootable.

 

[grendel0501]

I did the basic NTFS quick format, but I'm guessing you mean something more. Its no the main OS/boot drive.
Do I really need to make a boot usb for this? I was thinking it was something simple in disk management I was forgetting to do.

 

[grendel0501]

I converted to GTP and now it works fine. *Confused*
Anything wrong with this?

 

[trents]

You could have also done this with the Diskpart tool from Powershell with admin privileges. You would first issue the list command to see and identify the disk. Then use the select command to select the disk. Then use the list command again to list the partitions on the disk. Then use the select command to choose the partitions you wish to delete. Finally, use the delete command to delete the partition. Just selecting the disk and using the clean command might work as well.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Should have just DBAN'ed it and been done with it.

 

[caddi daddi]

Should have just DBAN'ed it and been done with it.

what is DBAN?

 

[Janus67]

what is DBAN?

Drive wipe utility

 

[stompah]

what is DBAN?

Darik's Boot And Nuke. That is what I linked to above. I mainly suggested it since it was a refurb drive. Write some 1s and 0s to it and start fresh.

Correct me if I am wrong but a quick format is not a true format. It just removes address files. The original info is still there.

 

[habbajabba]

Any bootable linux iso contains gparted but the disc would have to be empty. Aeomi will change parts for free even if some have data. https://www.disk-partition.com/free-partition-manager.html
MiniTool is free also. https://www.minitool.com/download-center/

 

[Blaylock]

When in doubt, DBAN.

 

[trents]

Yes, Mini Tool Partition Wizard is a great free program. I recently discovered it has a feature for cloning a spinner to an SSD and aligns the first sector correctly in the process. I won't spend money on Acronis TI anymore now.

 

[ihrsetrdr]

Gparted, simple,fast, effective, free.