It is possible to configure VMWare Player to use a partition of the host machine: http://imrannazar.com/Running-a-Windows-Partition-in-VMware. Couple of pitfalls you will need to watch out for:

1. You will be changing the hard drive controller the OS sees, so make sure you've updated hardware profiles/generated the appropriate initrd
2. This can (and frequently will) trigger Windows Activation, so make sure you've backed that up
3. Generate a separate MBR for VMWare to prevent yourself from booting the host OS from VMWare. Guaranteed to break your system.

It is possible to configure VMWare Player to use a partition of the host machine: http://imrannazar.com/Running-a-Windows-Partition-in-VMware. Couple of pitfalls you will need to watch out for:

1. You will be changing the hard drive controller the OS sees, so make sure you've updated hardware profiles/generated the appropriate initrd
2. This can (and frequently will) trigger Windows Activation, so make sure you've backed that up
3. Generate a separate MBR for VMWare to prevent yourself from booting the host OS from VMWare. Booting an OS over itself is guaranteed to break your system.