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Running a Windows Partition in VMware - Oopsilon

I have my system partitioned into two: one part of the hard drive hosts a Windows XP partition, and the other runs Gentoo Linux. About a month ago, I was just about tired of having to reboot to switch between the two, so I decided to set up a VM for Windows.

There was, however, a snag to this: I wanted to use the existing Windows installation, because I’d tuned it up and installed the software I always use. I expressly didn’t want a virtual disk image duplicating my Windows drive, since I didn’t have the space for that. So, that was the task: running the Windows partition in a VM.

I hunted around the ‘Net, and found surprisingly little information on this: the procedure I finally threw together was sourced from many disparate places. So, in one place, I’ve put together the steps you’ll need to take in order to get a Windows partition running inside a VM.

[From: Running a Windows Partition in VMware - Oopsilon]