I have a modern 4TB 3.5″ SATA 6.0 Gbps backup drive formatted via GPT, the main partition on which has an ext4 file system, which I have to read / copy for a recovery operation.
The hardware available is an externally powered USB drive enclosure and a ThinkPad that dual-boots Linux and Windows 10.
The problem is that (a) while Windows has utterly no trouble doing this for USB- connected NTFS partitions, it does not read (or write, for that matter) EXT4-formatted partitions; and (b) Linux finds it impossible to read or write USB-connected 3.5″ HDDs (but somehow has no difficulty reading or writing 2.5″ HDDs (cf. SSDs) via an unpowered USB adapter, however).
Several third-party Windows drivers exist for reading ext4 partitions but these consistently trigger a BSOD when launched with the drive enclosure powered on (and vice versa). Presumably, they would work without difficulty were the drive connected to an internal SATA adapter.
It isn’t clear that WSL solutions work for a USB-connected drive but confirmation one way or the other would be helpful.
The question is how to read a USB-connected EXT4 partition connected to a Linux / Windows dual-boot laptop? I.e., any Linux- or Windows-based solution would be welcome, and so this is expressly being judiciously cross-posted.
Edit: In response to comments re power, and to be clear:
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The drive enclosure for the 3.5″ HDDs is externally powered.
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The unpowered USB adapter successfully reads SSDs and 2.5″ HDDs in both OSs and for whichever FS the OS may recognize, natively or via 3d party drivers. The USB bus lacks the power capacity for a 3.5″ HDD and I am not attempting to use the unpowered USB adapter to connect to the 3.5″ HDD.