If the free driver fails or you are using newer VMFS versions (like VMFS 6), professional software is more reliable.
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
This is a helpful review and guide on how to read VMFS partitions (VMware ESXi datastores) from a Windows machine. If the free driver fails or you are
Windows cannot natively read VMFS (Virtual Machine File System) partitions because it lacks the necessary drivers to recognize VMware's proprietary file system. If you connect a disk with a VMFS partition to a Windows machine, it will appear in as an "Unknown" or "GPT" partition. Windows cannot natively read VMFS (Virtual Machine File
Several commercial tools install a file system driver that allows Windows to mount and read (and sometimes write) VMFS volumes as if they were regular drives.
trust a tool that claims to give "full write support" to VMFS from Windows unless it is from a reputable VMware partner and you have tested it on non-critical data.