Attach Ext4 Partitions to WSL Instance

Here is a quick guide to mount ext4 Linux into WSL.

Open powershell as administrator

GET-CimInstance -query "SELECT * from Win32_DiskDrive"

this is to get the drive information that you want to mount eg. \.\PHYSICALDRIVE4

To find the right physical drive, it can help to use e.g.

get-partition 4

for e.g. physical drive 4. You should see an Unknown partition type, which is likely to be Linux.

wsl.exe --mount \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE4 --bare

Go into wsl in another terminal and check the drive is mounted

lsblk # or lsblk -f

you will see the drive for eg. /dev/sdc

mount /dev/sdc /mnt/mydrive

Finally, when done:

wsl.exe --unmount \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE4 --bare