diskmgmt.msc: Cannot delete volume from USB

Posted by Notinlist on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Notinlist
Published on 2012-09-04T09:04:37Z Indexed on 2012/09/04 9:40 UTC
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I have an USB drive with about 8GB of size. It has a single partition of size 169MB. Don't know why, I got it that way. I wanted to delete this small (FAT32) partition and create a single NTFS volume on it.

First, I noticed that the "Delete volumme" option is disabled (grayed out). I then tried "Change drive letter and paths..." and removed "F:", that way I made sure that there are no open files on it. The "Delete volume" was still disabled.

Then I got suspicious, and right clicked on the "Unallocated" area and I noticed that I did not have any useful option. All "New * volume" items are disabled.

I exited from diskmgmt.msc, ran a cmd.exe with administrator privileges, ran the diskmgmt.msc from it, same experiences.

Why can't i do anything with this disk? I've read some advices about downloading some alternative free software, but I rather not do it if possible. I still hope that Windows 7 Enterprise 64bit alone can reinitialize an USB drive without external help.

I also cannot do anything with my other 8GB pendrive. It's all an NTFS volume, I tried to delete it, but the option is disabled here too. Maybe I have some settings somewhere that prevents my from partitioning USB disks. (I have the freedom to remove my D: partition which is the second - not counding the "System reserved" - on my SSD disk.)

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