✅ Completely free, no Windows drivers required. ❌ Cons: Requires reboot, command-line comfort, and Linux knowledge.
Windows does not natively support the , meaning it cannot read or mount these partitions without third-party intervention. To access data on a VMFS drive from Windows, you must use specialized drivers or recovery software. Quick Comparison of Methods VMFS Support Professional Recovery Software Corrupted drives or modern ESXi hosts VMFS 5 & 6 Paid (Free trial) Open Source VMFS Driver Legacy drives (ESXi 4.x or older) VMFS 3 only WSL2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux) Power users on Windows 10/11 VMFS 5 & 6 Network Transfer (SSH/SCP) Healthy ESXi hosts still online All versions Method 1: Professional Recovery Software (Recommended) read vmfs partition windows
Now you can rescue that VMX file or extract a forgotten ISO from your old ESXi drive—safely and without panic. ✅ Completely free, no Windows drivers required
Reading a partition on a Windows machine is notoriously difficult because Windows does not natively support VMware’s clustered file system. If you connect an ESXi-formatted drive to your PC, Windows will likely label it as an "Unknown Partition" or ask to format it. To access data on a VMFS drive from