AWS Solutions Architect Associate 2025 – 400 Free Practice Questions to Pass the Exam

When an EC2 instance that is backed by an S3-based AMI (Amazon Machine Image) is terminated, the data on the root volume is automatically deleted. This is because S3-based AMIs are designed to use Amazon S3 for their storage rather than traditional EBS volumes. When the instance is terminated, the data associated with the root volume is not preserved or saved; instead, it is lost, and the storage that was temporarily associated with the instance is deallocated.

In contrast to EBS-backed instances, which can create snapshots and keep data on volumes even after instance termination, S3-based instances do not retain the state of the root volume after termination. Therefore, any data that was present on the root volume during the lifetime of the instance will be permanently removed, emphasizing the importance of ensuring that any necessary data is backed up or saved to a persistent storage solution before termination.