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Guide: Attach and Detach a Storage Disk

This guide describes how to attach a Storage Disk to an Instance and detach it when needed.

Before You Begin​

  • A disk to be attached must be in Available status.
  • A disk to be detached must be in In-use status.
  • The target Instance must belong to the same Project as the disk.

Attach a Disk to an Instance​

  1. In the left navigation bar, select Compute Engine → Storage disks.

  2. Find the disk you want to attach, then click the action menu icon (⋮) at the end of the row.

    Storage Disk action menu

  3. Select Attach from the menu.

  4. In the dialog that appears, select the target Instance from the dropdown list.

  5. Click Confirm to complete.

  6. The disk status changes to In-use and the Attached Instance column displays the Instance name.

Note: Each disk can only be attached to one Instance at a time. If the disk is in In-use status, the Attach option is disabled — detach it first.

Detach a Disk From an Instance​

  1. In the Storage disks list, find the disk you want to detach, then click the action menu icon (⋮).

  2. Select Detach from the menu.

  3. Confirm the operation in the dialog.

  4. The disk status returns to Available — the data on the disk is fully preserved.

Important: In the Instance's operating system, unmount the disk before detaching from the portal to avoid data loss. For example, on Linux: sudo umount /dev/vdb.

Note: After a successful detach, you can attach this disk to any other Instance in the same Project.