# Volumes

A volume is a data storage area that can be mounted into a container to provide persistent storage. Unlike bind mounts, volumes are independent of the underlying OS and are fully managed by the Docker Engine.

<figure><img src="https://content.gitbook.com/content/xdTQRpMuktD2l0URtOJO/blobs/GSinYhILDYhpDqT96LWJ/2.15-docker_volumes_volumes.png" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

A volume with the **external** flag was created outside of Portainer, which means Portainer has limited knowledge on it compared to one created within Portainer. A label of **unused** means that Portainer cannot see any applications that are using this volume. This label may also appear on **external** resources because of the limited information available.

In Portainer you can view a list of the volumes on your environment, add new volumes and remove existing volumes.

{% content-ref url="volumes/add" %}
[add](https://docs.portainer.io/user/docker/volumes/add)
{% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="volumes/remove" %}
[remove](https://docs.portainer.io/user/docker/volumes/remove)
{% endcontent-ref %}

If you're running Docker Swarm or the Portainer Agent on your environment, you can also browse existing volumes on that environment.

{% content-ref url="volumes/browse" %}
[browse](https://docs.portainer.io/user/docker/volumes/browse)
{% endcontent-ref %}