Delete an EFI Partition in Windows

The EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) system partition or ESP is a partition on a data storage device (usually a hard disk drive or solid-state drive) that is used by computers having the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). When the PC is booted, the UEFI loads the file stored in the EFI partition to start the Operating System and any other utilities required. It takes about 100M or 200MB or so with no drive letter. Normally, you may see more EFI system partitions on Windows 10.

How to remove EFI Partition from Flash disk Using Disk part.

Usually, you can easily delete a partition in Disk Management. But you can’t delete the EFI system partition in Windows because the “Delete Volume” feature is grayed out.

The “Delete Volume” may also gray out when you try to delete the OEM partition, recovery, or system reserved partition. This page will talk about how to delete the EFI system partition on Windows and the must-know information about the EFI system partition, including what EFI is and what happens when the partition is deleted.

Delete EFI System Partition with Disk part

Open Disk Part on your PC.

Open CMD or PowerShell in an administrative setting.

Type disk part on either CMD or PowerShell.

Change EFI system partition ID and set it as a data partition.

Type the below command lines and hit Enter each time:

• “list disk” (It displays all the disks of your computer. )
• “sel disk 0” (It identifies which disk you need to work with. Here 0 stands for the disk letter.)
• “list partition” (It displays all partitions and EFI system partitions on the selected disk.)
• “sel partition 1” (Select the EFI partition that you want to delete. Here, 1 stands for the volume number of EFI.)

Delete the EFI partition with the command line.

Type the below command lines and hit Enter each time:

• “list partition” (It displays all the volumes on the hard drive.)
• “sel partition 1” (It identifies which partition you want to remove. Here 1 stands for the volume letter.)
• “delete partition override” (It removes the EFI partition from the  Windows disk.) 

Complete EFI deleting process.

Finally, type “exit” to close the windows when you receive the message that says, ‘Disk Part successfully deleted the selected partition’.

#Delete an EFI Partition in Windows