# Usability of EBS Volumes while Snapshots are being created

*   Snapshots occur asynchronously; the point-in-time snapshot is created immediately, but the **status of the snapshot is `pending` until the snapshot is complete** (when all of the modified blocks have been transferred to S3), which can take several hours for large initial snapshots or subsequent snapshots where many blocks have changed.


* While it is completing, an in-progress snapshot is not affected by ongoing reads and writes to the volume hence, **you can still use the EBS volume normally**.\

* A **non-root EBS volume can be detached or attached to a new EC2 instance while the snapshot is in progress**. The only exception here is if you are taking a snapshot of your root volume.
