# Make instance store volume available for use on an EC2 instance
<a name="making-instance-stores-available-on-your-instances"></a>

After you launch an instance with attached instance store volumes, you must mount the volumes before you can access them.

## Linux instances
<a name="view-instance-store-linux"></a>

You can format volumes with the file system of your choice after you launch your instance.

**To make an instance store volume available on Linux**

1. Connect to the instance using an SSH client. For more information, see [Connect to your Linux instance using SSH](connect-to-linux-instance.md).

1. Use the `df -h` command to view the volumes that are formatted and mounted.

   ```
   $ df -h
   Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
   devtmpfs        3.8G   72K  3.8G   1% /dev
   tmpfs           3.8G     0  3.8G   0% /dev/shm
   /dev/nvme0n1p1  7.9G  1.2G  6.6G  15% /
   ```

1. Use the `lsblk` to view any volumes that were mapped at launch but not formatted and mounted.

   ```
   $ lsblk
   NAME          MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
   nvme0n1       259:1    0    8G  0 disk
   ├─nvme0n1p1   259:2    0    8G  0 part /
   └─nvme0n1p128 259:3    0    1M  0 part
   nvme1n1       259:0    0 69.9G  0 disk
   ```

1. To format and mount an instance store volume that was mapped only, do the following:

   1. Create a file system on the device using the `mkfs` command.

      ```
      $ sudo mkfs -t xfs /dev/nvme1n1
      ```

   1. Create a directory on which to mount the device using the `mkdir` command.

      ```
      $ sudo mkdir /data
      ```

   1. Mount the device on the newly created directory using the `mount` command.

      ```
      $ sudo mount /dev/nvme1n1 /data
      ```

## Windows instances
<a name="view-instance-store-windows"></a>

For Windows instances, we reformat the instance store volumes with the NTFS file system.

You can view the instance store volumes using Windows Disk Management. For more information, see [List non-NVMe disks](windows-list-disks.md#windows-disks).

**To manually mount an instance store volume**

1. Choose **Start**, enter **Computer Management**, and then press **Enter**.

1. In left-hand panel, choose **Disk Management**.

1. If you are prompted to initialize the volume, choose the volume to initialize, select the required partition type depending on your use case, and then choose **OK**.

1. In the list of volumes, right-click the volume to mount, and then choose **New Simple Volume**.

1. On the wizard, choose **Next**.

1. On the Specify Volume Size screen, choose **Next** to use the maximum volume size. Alternatively, choose a volume size that is between the minimum and maximum disk space.

1. On the Assign a Drive Letter or Path screen, do one of the following, and choose **Next**.
   + To mount the volume with a drive letter, choose **Assign the following drive letter** and then choose the drive letter to use.
   + To mount the volume as a folder, choose **Mount in the following empty NTFS folder** and then choose **Browse** to create or select the folder to use.
   + To mount the volume without a drive letter or path, choose **Do not assign a drive letter or drive path**.

1. On the Format Partition screen, specify whether or not to format the volume. If you choose to format the volume, choose the required file system and unit size, and specify a volume label.

1. Choose **Next**, **Finish**.