Common Mistakes I See Students Make

By Ravindra Bagale Last updated: 25 September 2026

Creating the volume in a different AZ from the instance — it simply won't appear in the attach list.
Running mkfs on a volume that already has data (e.g. restored from a snapshot) and wiping it.
Using /dev/sdf or /dev/nvme1n1 in fstab instead of the UUID.
Forgetting nofail and the instance hangs at boot when the volume is missing.
Running resize2fs on an XFS filesystem (use xfs_growfs) or giving xfs_growfs a device instead of the mount point.
Forgetting the space in growpart /dev/nvme0n1 1.
Detaching without unmounting, risking data corruption.
Leaving unattached volumes and old snapshots that keep costing money.