This is not actually true. If you Stop an EBS-root EC2 instance, the EBS Volume can be safely detached and moved along to other instances, or you can restart the instance and your data will be ok.
Additionally, There's no excuse for not snapshotting your EBS volumes of any sort, and these snapshots persist beyond the lifetime of the volume.
I find it just a little sad that relatively few (less than all) EBS customers don't snapshot their volumes.
You do not have to move your volumes: while the instance is in a "stopped" state you can change it's instance type and then restart it. EBS-root let's you change hardware as fast as you can reboot with just three commands.
You are, of course, correct. Notice in my post that you replied to I was careful to use the word terminate, not stop, when referring to what I assume he did to his instance.
edit: After re-reading my post it probably wasn't clear to people who don't use EC2; so your reply is probably for the best. :)
