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Mounting an ext4 Partition on Windows 11 Using WSL

Mounting an ext4 Partition on Windows 11 Using WSL

So you’ve got an external hard drive formatted with ext4 and want to mount it on Windows 11 to grab some backups? Yeah, that was me last weekend. Here's how I did it (without installing third-party tools), using only WSL and some built-in Windows features.

Step 1 – Realize "wmic" is no longer available 🫠

Most tutorials I found online started by using the wmic command to list drives and partitions, like:

1wmic diskdrive list brief

...but surprise! wmic is deprecated and gone from modern versions of Windows 11. So, plan B.

Step 2 – Use "Disk Management" (aka "Gestion des disques")

In French it's called Gestion des disques, but on English systems it's Disk Management. To open it:

  • Press Win + X and choose Disk Management
  • Look for your external drive in the list
  • Note down:
    • The PhysicalDrive number (e.g., Drive 1)
    • The Partition index (e.g., Partition 1)

disk_partitions.jpg

💡 If you're unsure, unplug and plug the disk back in to easily spot it.

UPDATE: You can also use this command in Powershell to list available drives and find their DeviceID which you can then directly use in Step 3 (you will still need to find the partition index though):

1GET-CimInstance -query "SELECT * from Win32_DiskDrive"

Step 3 – Mount it using WSL

Now fire up PowerShell as Administrator and run the following command (adjust the numbers accordingly):

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

Give it a few seconds, and voilà!

Step 4 – Access the files from WSL

Once mounted, the partition is accessible via:

/mnt/wsl/PHYSICALDRIVE1p1

Again, adjust drive and partition numbers accordingly.

That’s it. No third-party drivers, no weird hacks. Just native WSL2 power 💪

Bonus: Unmounting

When you're done:

1wsl --unmount \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1

Nice and clean.

🧠 TL;DR

  • Use Disk Management to find the drive and partition index

  • Mount via:

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

  • Access it under:

    /mnt/wsl/PHYSICALDRIVE1p1

  • Unmount when you're done:

    wsl --unmount \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1

Happy hacking!