Obtaining files/data from Stopped EC2 Instance or the attached volumes (Elastic Block Store)

Question

I have finished a recent project and want to terminate my EC2 instance, but before termination, I want to access the files and download them to my local machine, I currently have stopped the EC2 instance and detached the volume (Elastic Block Store), now I want to access the files that are stored in the past project. Is there any simple methods to simply access and download the aforementioned  files for the past project. Like for example some of my projects' storage are connected to S3, in which they can easily be downloaded and accessed, can volumes (Elastic Block Store) follow the same way of accessing past files?

Jordan Sandri · Answer

Hello,

If your files are stored on an EBS volume, you can access them by attaching the volume to another running EC2 instance. Here’s a simple way to do it:
1. Start another EC2 instance 
2. Attach the volume to the running EC2 instance via the AWS Console or CLI.
3. Mount the volume inside the instance in a directory you create.
4. Copy the files
5. Once done, detach and delete the volume if no longer needed.
6. You can then upload your files to S3 and download them on your local machine.

*PS: Of course, if you can restart your current EC2 instance, you don’t need a new one and can directly upload your files to S3.*

Hope it helps 😊

Sushanta Paudel · Answer

You can connect to your instance through any of the available FTP clients ( FileZilla, WinSCP etc) and download the files to your local machines through the FTP client's interface.

Obtaining files/data from Stopped EC2 Instance or the attached volumes (Elastic Block Store)

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