How to identify content of unknown disks

[Dee Jacobs]

I have been creating vgs with spare disks and I have been failing and recovering disks.

I have a procedure for this now and it works well.

In the process I have several disks of unknown state - some may have been parts of a vg,

some may have had mediainit, some I just don't know.

How can I identify what types of data are on the disks in an unknown state?

I intend to do mediainit on the ones with data and free them now for normal usage.

[Duncan Edmonstone · Accepted solution]

If you are on 11iv3, the diskowner command may help you...

It will at least tell you what sorts of headers if any are on the disk. 

[Dee Jacobs]

Thanks Duncan. I tried that just now. The ones that have been inited show as unowned. The ones that were part of a vg before are marked lvm. Any listed in lvmtab are live vgs.
That should take care of it.