---
title: "Mount a volume on Windows"
description: "Bring an attached Block Storage volume online and format it on a Windows node so it appears as a usable drive."
content_type: "how-to"
product: "volumes"
platform: "MyAccount"
url: "/myaccount/volumes/how-to/mount-a-volume-on-windows/"
topic: ["create"]
relationships: {"requires":["/myaccount/volumes/how-to/attach-a-volume/"]}
---

# Mount a volume on Windows

After you attach a volume to a Windows node, it appears as a new disk that is often **Offline**
at first. To use it, you bring it online, initialize it (if it is new), create a partition, and
format it. Once formatted, the disk appears in File Explorer and Windows remounts it across
reboots automatically.

## Before you begin

- A volume attached to the node. See [Attach a volume](/myaccount/volumes/how-to/attach-a-volume/).
- Access to the node over Remote Desktop (RDP).

## Bring the disk online and initialize it

1. Connect to the Windows node over RDP.
2. Right-click the **Start** icon and choose **Disk Management**. The new volume appears as a
   disk, for example **Disk 1**, often **Offline**.
3. Right-click the disk label and choose **Online**. Its status changes to **Online**.
4. If the disk is new and unformatted, right-click the disk label and choose **Initialize Disk**.
   Choose a partition style: **GPT** for modern systems and disks larger than 2 TB, **MBR** for
   disks up to 2 TB.

Initializing a disk that already has data, such as one created from a snapshot, deletes that
data. Initialize only a new, empty disk.

## Create a volume and assign a drive letter

1. Right-click the **Unallocated** space on the disk and choose **New Simple Volume**.
2. In the wizard, use the default size to take the full disk, assign a drive letter such as
   **D:**, and choose a file system (pick **NTFS**; for very large or high-performance
   workloads, **ReFS** is an option where supported). Enter a
   volume label if you like, then finish the wizard. The wizard formats the volume as part of
   this.

The new volume appears as **Healthy** in Disk Management and as a drive in **This PC**.

## (Optional) Mount the volume to a folder instead of a drive letter

Windows remounts a drive letter automatically across reboots. If you would rather use a
consistent folder path, such as `C:\Data`, for application data instead of a drive letter:

1. In Disk Management, right-click the volume and choose **Change Drive Letter and Paths**.
2. Click **Add**, then **Mount in the following empty NTFS folder**.
3. Choose an empty NTFS folder, such as `C:\Data`, and confirm.

The volume then appears at that folder path as well as under its drive letter.

The volume is formatted, usable, and remounted automatically after a reboot. Before you detach it, close anything using it and take the disk offline; see [Detach a volume](/myaccount/volumes/how-to/detach-a-volume/). If the disk does not appear, see [Troubleshooting Volumes](/myaccount/volumes/troubleshooting/volumes/).