DISKPART: Can't delete extended partition

Question

I was trying to convert my MBR disk to GPT disk using MBR2GPT. I first checked the partition list using DiskPart, and I saw there were 4 partitions:

DISKPART>list partition
Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
-------------  ----------------  -------  -------
Partition 1    Primary             49 GB    31 KB
Partition 0    Extended           415 GB    50 GB
Partition 3    Logical            200 GB    50 GB
Partition 4    Logical            215 GB   250 GB

I checked the extended partition:

DISKPART>detail partition
Partition 0
Type  : 0F
Hidden: No
Active: No
Offset in Bytes: 53801556480

There is no volume associated with this partition.

I tried to delete it but it encountered the following error:

DISKPART> delete partition

Virtual Disk Service error:
The extended partition is not empty.

I tried to format it, but it seems I can't format the extended partition.

Answer 1

You cannot delete the extended partition because you may only select one logical partition at a time and this partition contains several. Thus, you need to delete all the logical partitions first, then delete the extended partition.

You may do so in Disk Management, or if you prefer in diskpart:

1. Run cmd as administrator

2. Run diskpart inside

3. Type list disk

4. Type select disk n (n is the number of the extended partition)

5. Type list partition

6. Type select partition m (m is the number of any partition)

7. Type delete partition

8. Repeat steps 6-7 to delete the rest of the logical partitions, followed in the end by the extended partition itself.