Mount Vmfs - Disk Windows [upd]

If you need to read or recover files from a VMware VMFS disk (common with ESXi hosts) directly in Windows, you’ll quickly discover that Windows does not natively support VMFS. After testing several options, here’s what works reliably:

While primarily a converter, its “Mount VMDK to VMFS” feature also allows read‑only access to raw VMFS disks. Works well for data recovery without writing to the source disk.

Open as Administrator and navigate to the folder where you extracted the driver. mount vmfs disk windows

Ensure the service is running in Windows Services ( services.msc ).

Here’s a helpful review for a typical method or tool used to mount a VMFS disk in Windows (e.g., using , StarWind V2V Converter , or VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit ): If you need to read or recover files

Here's a brief overview of the features and pricing for each tool:

❌ Write support is dangerous – do not modify VMFS from Windows ❌ Large disks (>2TB) may require additional configuration ❌ Not all tools handle spanned or RAID volumes well Open as Administrator and navigate to the folder

✅ No need for a separate Linux VM ✅ Read‑only access prevents accidental damage ✅ Free for basic use