# Check if disk is in use before partitioning?

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/check-if-disk-is-in-use-before-partitioning/28314>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [August 10, 2018, 11:38pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/check-if-disk-is-in-use-before-partitioning/28314 "2018-08-10T23:38:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Dylan\_Martin3](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/dylan_martin3/32/8574_2.png) [@Dylan\_Martin3](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dylan_Martin3)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2018, 11:38pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/check-if-disk-is-in-use-before-partitioning/28314/1 "2018-08-10T23:38:58Z")

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I all.

I’ve used parted and lvm (lvg & lvol) to set up machines, but I recently broke a system when I repartitioned a disk that was already in use. (Wooops!)

Does anyone have a good idea how to determine if a block device is already in use? By “in use” I mean, mounted in some way.

Thanks!  
-Dylan

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**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Lozada\_De\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Jonathan\_Lozada\_De\_L](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Jonathan_Lozada_De_L)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 1:59am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/check-if-disk-is-in-use-before-partitioning/28314/2 "2018-08-11T01:59:35Z")

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you can see what is mounted with ansible facts.

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**Author:** ![callmeshawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cab0a1/32.png) [@callmeshawn](https://forum.ansible.com/u/callmeshawn)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 4:26am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/check-if-disk-is-in-use-before-partitioning/28314/3 "2018-08-11T04:26:50Z")

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Might be environment/company specific, but in my company we make a partition on each disk so I usually only operate on a disk where the number of partitions is {}.  
I’ve heard discussions of folks using the entire disk, but that isn’t something we do, so isn’t an issue/concern.

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**Author:** ![Sakthivel\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@Sakthivel\_G](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Sakthivel_G)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 4:33am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/check-if-disk-is-in-use-before-partitioning/28314/4 "2018-08-11T04:33:29Z")

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You can use df - h Linux command to check mounted disks