| Need | Recommended Method | |------|--------------------| | Quick, occasional read of a single file | StarWind FS for Windows (free) | | Regular access or many files | Commercial driver (DiskInternals, UFS Explorer) | | Zero budget, technical user | Linux VM with vmfs-tools | | Disaster recovery, no booting Windows | Forensic live CD (CAINE) |
If the drive is healthy and you just want to read/write files to it like a standard external drive, you need a filesystem driver. windows read vmfs partition