title: Consistent EBS snapshot without downtime on a Windows Server 2012 AWS EC2 instance
body: <p>I have an AWS EC2 Windows Server 2012 R2 instance with a magnetic EBS-volume <code>D:\</code> (Windows SO is on <code>C:\</code>). </p>
  
  <p>My server works on <code>D:\</code> writes everytime some temporally files in <code>D:\temp</code> (session file, cache etc.) and reads some static files in <code>D:\htdocs</code>.</p>
  
  <p>I need do a daily consistent snapshot of EBS-volume without downtime</p>
  
  <p>About this question a lot of people says:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Snapshot EBS if the volume is in use it is possible but not recommended </p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>From <a href="http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/ebs-creating-snapshot.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">official documentation</a>:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p><strong>You can take a snapshot of an attached volume that is in use.</strong> However, snapshots only capture data that has been written to your Amazon EBS volume at the time the snapshot command is issued. <strong>If you can pause any file writes to the volume long enough to take a snapshot, your snapshot should be complete.</strong> </p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>and <a href="https://serverfault.com/a/366386/226126">here</a>:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p><strong>EBS volumes</strong> and snapshots operate at a block level - a consequence of
    which <strong>allows snapshots</strong> to be taken while an instance is running, even
    <strong>if the EBS volume is in use</strong>. However, only data that is actually on
    the disk (i.e. not in a file cache) will be included in the snapshot.
    It is the latter reason that gives rise to the idea of consistent
    snapshots.
    <strong>The recommended way is to detach the volume, snapshot it, and reattach it</strong> </p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>My question is: 
  if the snapshot is inconsistent because when i do it there are writing operations, can i remount it? Since only files written is temporally files but they aren't important for me, if are damaged can i simple delete them (after i remount snapshot)? my only target it's to be safe the static file.</p>