Initialize a data disk (Windows) - Elastic Compute Service

After attaching a new data disk to a Windows ECS instance, you must initialize it before storing data. This topic guides you through the initialization process, including partitioning and mounting the file system.

Prerequisites

The process of creating an empty data disk has been successfully completed. This data disk is a newly created, unformatted disk. For more information, see Create an empty data disk.

Note
The entry point for disk creation is the Windows instance purchase page. Disks created alongside the Windows instance are automatically initialized and ready for immediate use.
The data disk is currently attached to the ECS instance, with the status showing as In Use. For more information, see Attach a data disk.

Background information

This example uses an ECS instance and a data disk with specific configurations. Operations may differ based on actual conditions.

Operating system	Resource	Description
Windows operating system	Image used by the ECS instance	Windows Server 2016 64-bit
Windows operating system	Data disk	Disk name: Disk 1 Disk capacity: 40 GiB

Procedure

Remotely connect to the ECS instance.

For more information, see how to log on to a Windows instance using the Workbench tool via RDP protocol.
Right-click the icon on the Windows Server desktop and select Disk Management.
Find the data disk to be initialized (for example, Disk 1), which is marked as Offline.
Right-click the blank space for Disk 1 and choose Online.

Once online, Disk 1 will display as Not Initialized.
Right-click the blank space for Disk 1 and select Initialize Disk from the pop-up menu.
In the Initialize Disk dialog box, select the desired disk and partition style, then click OK.

Important
Disks larger than 2 TiB or those that may be expanded beyond 2 TiB should use the GUID partition table (GPT) format instead of the master boot record (MBR) format.
Right-click the Unallocated space on Disk 1 and choose New Simple Volume.
Follow the New Simple Volume Wizard by clicking Next and completing the steps as prompted.
1. In the Specify Volume Size dialog box, enter the Simple Volume Size and click Next.
  
  Use the default value if creating just a primary partition suffices. However, you can specify the size of the simple volume to divide Disk 1 into multiple partitions as needed.
2. In the Assign Drive Letter or Path dialog box, choose Assign the Following Drive Letter, select a letter (for example, D), and click Next.
3. In the Format Partition dialog box, select Format This Volume with the Following Settings, configure the format options, and click Next.
4. Review the new simple volume details, click Finish, and exit the New Simple Volume Wizard.

Execution result

After completing the initialization, the Disk Management status for Disk 1 will appear as shown. New Disk Status

The new drive New Volume (D:) will be visible in This PC, and you can begin using the data disk. New Disk

References

Should you find that a data disk lacks adequate storage space, you can expand the disk's capacity to increase its storage. For more information, see the Disk scale-out guide.