By default, the root device volume for an AMI backed by Amazon EBS is deleted when the instance terminates. To change the default behavior, set the DeleteOnTermination attribute to FALSE using a block device mapping.

• To change the root device volume of an instance to persist at launch using the console
• Open the Amazon EC2 console.
• From the Amazon EC2 console DASHBOARD, click Launch Instance.
• On the Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) page, choose the AMI to use and click Select.
• FOLLOW the wizard to complete the Choose an Instance Type and Configure Instance Details PAGES.
• On the Add Storage page, deselect the Delete On Termination CHECK box for the root volume.
• Complete the remaining wizard pages, and then click Launch.
• Changing the Root Volume of an Instance to Persist Using the AWS CLI
• Use the run-instances command to preserve the root volume by including a block device mapping that sets its DeleteOnTermination attribute for to false.

By default, the root device volume for an AMI backed by Amazon EBS is deleted when the instance terminates. To change the default behavior, set the DeleteOnTermination attribute to false using a block device mapping.