# Deleting partitions on a NOOBS card

**URL:** <https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/deleting-partitions-on-a-noobs-card/14798>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [August 24, 2020, 10:40am UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/deleting-partitions-on-a-noobs-card/14798 "2020-08-24T10:40:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jacquesdt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@jacquesdt](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/jacquesdt)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 10:40am UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/deleting-partitions-on-a-noobs-card/14798/1 "2020-08-24T10:40:34Z")

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I bought a NOOBS card back in 2016 which worked fine, until I somehow messed it up badly (don’t ask!). It doesn’t boot and doesn’t recover either.

I now want to wipe the card and install Raspbian Buster as [as per the official instructions](https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/installing-images/) to use in a RPi3. I want to use either Linux command line tools or the imager. But both these want a clean SD card, and I can’t seem to wipe this NOOBS SD card. I have tried

- GParted
- fdisk
- diskpart (Windows) with Admin command prompt
- inserting it in an Andriod device and trying to clear it (it’s not detected)
- Paragon Partition Manager (Windows)
- SD Association’s SD Card Formatter (Windows)

All tools report success upon completion, but the partitions and the data remains. I am utterly mystified by this!

What are your suggestions?

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**Author:** ![alphanumeric](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forums.pimoroni.com/alphanumeric/32/2729_2.png) [@alphanumeric](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/alphanumeric)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 11:42am UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/deleting-partitions-on-a-noobs-card/14798/2 "2020-08-24T11:42:31Z")

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The Pi foundation tool will wipe the SD card, repartition, and reformate it for you.

> **[Raspberry Pi Downloads - Software for the Raspberry Pi](https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/)**
>
> Download free software for Raspberry Pi, including Raspberry Pi Imager, Raspbian, and third-party OS images. Beginners should start with Raspberry Pi Imager

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**Author:** ![jacquesdt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@jacquesdt](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/jacquesdt)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2020, 8:38am UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/deleting-partitions-on-a-noobs-card/14798/3 "2020-08-25T08:38:00Z")

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The Raspberry Pi imager tool (on both Linux and Windows) reports “Error removing existing partitions”. It was the first thing I tried, hence all the other methods listed above.

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**Author:** ![alphanumeric](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forums.pimoroni.com/alphanumeric/32/2729_2.png) [@alphanumeric](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/alphanumeric)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2020, 8:42am UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/deleting-partitions-on-a-noobs-card/14798/4 "2020-08-25T08:42:15Z")

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Ok, fair enough. It sounds like you have a defective Micro SD card.  
Is it flagged as Read Only maybe?  
In disk part, “clean all” is what I usually do. You want to make doubley sure your running it on the correct drive though.  
If all those utilities failed, something must be mucked up on the SD card, hardware wise.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jacquesdt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@jacquesdt](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/jacquesdt)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2020, 5:45pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/deleting-partitions-on-a-noobs-card/14798/5 "2020-08-25T17:45:25Z")

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Yes I’ve tried “clean all” in diskpart, no joy.

I was suspecting the card might be dodgy. Would also explain why the OS won’t boot!

Thanks for all the help!