Read Vmfs Partition | Windows

Windows does not natively support the VMware VMFS file system. To read a VMFS partition on a Windows machine, you must use third-party drivers or recovery tools that can interpret the proprietary format. 1. Using Free/Open-Source Drivers (Read-Only)

This is a helpful review and guide on how to read VMFS partitions (VMware ESXi datastores) from a Windows machine. windows read vmfs partition

If the free driver fails or you are using newer VMFS versions (like VMFS 6), professional software is more reliable. Windows does not natively support the VMware VMFS

If you manage VMware infrastructure, you are familiar with . It is the proprietary, high-performance cluster file system used by VMware vSphere and ESXi to store virtual machines. Using Free/Open-Source Drivers (Read-Only) This is a helpful

Identify the disk number of your VMFS drive using (e.g., Disk 1).

Boot your Windows machine from a USB drive running a specialized forensic OS like or PALADIN . These include VMFS support out-of-the-box.