A: No stable, free, open-source driver exists for Windows. The vmfs-tools project works only on Linux/WSL.
A: Yes, with paid tools (e.g., DiskInternals), but it's risky. VMware locks the datastore to one ESXi host at a time; writing from Windows could cause metadata corruption. windows mount vmfs
built-in Windows disk tools with VMFS disks, and always prefer read-only access unless you fully understand the risks. FAQ Q: Can I mount VMFS 6 on Windows? A: Yes, recent versions of StarWind and DiskInternals support VMFS 5 and 6. A: No stable, free, open-source driver exists for Windows
You can use this as a blog post, technical documentation, or a knowledge base article. Introduction VMware’s Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) is the default, high-performance cluster file system used by VMware vSphere (ESXi). By design, Windows does not natively recognize VMFS volumes. If you plug a physical disk or a SAN LUN formatted with VMFS into a Windows machine, Windows will see it as an unformatted or raw disk and prompt you to initialize it—which would destroy the VMware data. VMware locks the datastore to one ESXi host