# Deleting EFS file systems
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File system deletion is a destructive action that you can't undo. You lose the file system and any data you have in it. Any data that you delete from a file system is gone, and you can't restore the data. When users delete data from a file system, that data is immediately rendered unusable. EFS force-overwrites the data in an eventual manner.

**Important**  
You should always unmount a file system before you delete it.

## Using the console
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**To delete a file system**

1. Open the Amazon Elastic File System console at [https://console.amazonaws.cn/efs/](https://console.amazonaws.cn/efs/).

1. Select the file system that you want to delete in the **File systems** page.

1. Choose **Delete**.

1. In the **Delete file system** dialog box, enter the file system ID shown, and choose **Confirm** to confirm the delete.

   The console simplifies the file system deletion for you. First it deletes the associated mount targets, and then it deletes the file system.

## Using the Amazon CLI
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Before you can use the Amazon CLI command to delete a file system, you must delete all of the mount targets and access points that were created for the file system. 

For example Amazon CLI commands, see [Step 4: Clean up](wt1-getting-started.md#wt1-clean-up).