VMFS is a high-performance file system designed for VMware ESXi hosts. It is not natively readable by Windows. Attempting to access a VMFS drive via Windows Disk Management will result in a prompt to "Initialize Disk," which will erase the datastore. This guide covers the safe method to mount VMFS on Windows for data recovery.
For older VMFS versions, you can use the Java-based (fvmfs). Requirements: Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installed. Process: Extract the fvmfs files to a folder (e.g., C:\VMFS ). Open Command Prompt as Administrator.
# Convert VMDK to RAW (Windows-readable) vmware-vdiskmanager.exe -r source.vmdk -t 2 output.raw mount vmfs windows
Initializing will destroy your data.
If you have access to the ESXi host:
To , you must use specialized commercial data recovery utilities or open-source Java drivers. The Microsoft Windows operating system cannot natively read or write to VMware’s proprietary Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) .
Disconnect the hard drive or solid-state drive from the crashed ESXi host and connect it directly to an available SATA, SAS, or NVMe port on your Windows machine. VMFS is a high-performance file system designed for
Windows does not support the VMFS file system. If you see a popup saying "You need to format the disk before you can use it," Cancel it immediately . If you format it, your VMs are toast.