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How to Open an ext4 Disk on Windows 10 and 11

3 min readUnixHost team

Windows cannot read ext4, the file system most Linux distributions use: a disk from a server or a dual-boot machine shows up in File Explorer as unallocated. The data is still there — you just need a tool that understands ext4.

Method 1. WSL 2 — built into Windows

On Windows 11 and current builds of Windows 10, the Windows Subsystem for Linux can attach physical ext4 disks. This is the most reliable option: a real Linux kernel handles the file system, and both reading and writing work.

Preparation

Open PowerShell as administrator and install WSL if you do not have it yet:

wsl --install

Reboot after installation. If WSL is already installed, update it:

wsl --update

Identify the disk

GET-CimInstance -query "SELECT * from Win32_DiskDrive"

Find the disk in the DeviceID column — a path like \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1. Use the model and size to tell disks apart.

Attach the partition

wsl --mount \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1 --partition 1 --type ext4

Use your own partition number. If you do not know it, attach the disk without a file system and inspect the layout from inside Linux:

wsl --mount \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1 --bare
wsl lsblk

Open the files

The partition appears in Linux under /mnt/wsl/PHYSICALDRIVE1p1. In File Explorer it is available at:

\\wsl$\Ubuntu\mnt\wsl\PHYSICALDRIVE1p1

Replace Ubuntu with the name of your distribution — wsl -l lists them.

Detach the disk

wsl --unmount \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1

Limitations

  • You cannot attach the disk Windows itself boots from.
  • The disk is attached as a whole, so a partition on the same disk as the Windows system cannot be opened this way.
  • USB flash drives and memory cards are not supported directly: they need USB passthrough with usbipd.
  • The disk has to be attached again after a reboot.

Method 2. ext4 reader tools

If you cannot install WSL or only need to copy a few files, standalone programs will do.

  • DiskInternals Linux Reader — a free program with an Explorer-style interface. It is read-only, so it cannot damage the data.
  • Paragon Linux File Systems for Windows — a paid driver. The ext4 disk shows up as a normal volume with read and write access.

Old free drivers such as Ext2Fsd have not been updated for years and can corrupt a modern ext4 file system. Do not use them for writing.

Method 3. Do not attach the disk at all

It is often easier to fetch the data over the network than to move the disk:

  • boot the computer from a live USB of any Linux distribution and copy the files to an external disk formatted as NTFS or exFAT;
  • if the disk sits in a running server, copy the data with scp or mount the directory as a network folder with SSHFS — there is an SSHFS-Win client for Windows.

Which one to choose

Task Method
Regular work with the disk, write access needed WSL 2
Copy some files once Linux Reader
The ext4 disk as a normal Windows volume Paragon
The disk is in a server scp, SSHFS

If you exchange files between Windows and Linux all the time, it is more convenient to keep the data on network storage reachable from both systems rather than on a portable disk.

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