Find Unattached EBS Volumes

Stop paying for orphaned EBS storage. Server Scheduler identifies unattached volumes across all your AWS regions.


Find Unattached Volumes
Did you know?

AWS charges you for EBS volumes whether they're attached to an instance or not. Orphaned volumes from terminated instances are a common source of hidden cloud costs.

What Are Unattached EBS Volumes?

When you terminate an EC2 instance, any EBS volumes attached to it may remain if they weren't configured to delete on termination. These "orphaned" volumes continue to incur charges even though they're not being used.


This is a surprisingly common problem. Over time, teams spin up and down instances for testing, development, or temporary workloads — and forget about the storage left behind. Before you know it, you're paying for gigabytes (or terabytes) of unused storage every month.

How Server Scheduler Helps

Server Scheduler scans your AWS account across all selected regions and identifies any EBS volumes that are not attached to an instance. Our Cost Recommendations dashboard shows you:


  • 👉Volume ID and region — exactly which volumes are unattached and where
  • 👉Size and type — how much storage and what type (gp2, gp3, io1, etc.)
  • 👉Monthly cost — how much each orphaned volume is costing you
  • 👉Creation date — when the volume was created to help identify old forgotten storage

What You Can Do

Once you've identified unattached volumes, you have several options:


  • ✅ Delete the volume if it's no longer needed and free up that monthly spend
  • ✅ Create a snapshot first if you want a backup before deleting (snapshots are much cheaper than volumes)
  • ✅ Reattach it to an instance if it was accidentally detached

Common Causes of Orphaned Volumes

Understanding how volumes become orphaned can help prevent future waste:


  • ⚠️Instance termination — volumes not set to "Delete on Termination" remain after instance is terminated
  • ⚠️Failed deployments — automation scripts that create volumes but fail before cleanup
  • ⚠️Manual detachment — volumes detached for data migration that were never deleted
  • ⚠️Snapshot restoration — volumes created from snapshots for testing then forgotten

How to Get Started

  1. 1
    Connect Your AWS Account

    Sign up and connect your AWS account with read-only permissions.

  2. 2
    Navigate to Cost Recommendations

    From your dashboard, go to AWS → Cost Recommendations → Unattached EBS Volumes.

  3. 3
    Review and Take Action

    Review the list of unattached volumes and decide which ones to delete, snapshot, or investigate further.

Other Cost Recommendations

Unattached EBS volumes are just one way Server Scheduler helps you reduce AWS costs. Check out our other recommendations:


  • → EC2 Right-Sizing — identify oversized instances and get recommendations to downsize
  • → Savings Plans — see opportunities to commit and save up to 72% on compute costs
Find Unattached Volumes