Just a quick post because I want people to be careful with using raw disks with VMware. We would really prefer people *not* to run as root to access raw disks. There is a tool (vmware-distrib/make-saferawdisk.pl) included with the product that helps set up raw disk access and provides a level of protection to avoid accidents. Full instructions for using raw disks with VMware are here. We will make this easier to use in future releases.
Sorry I can't respond directly to emails. Please email general technical questions to tech_info@vmware.com. For technical support problems see our on-line support section at http://www.vmware.com/support/support.html. You can report technical problems on-line using forms there. Enjoy.
Darryl Ramm VMware, Inc. Palo Alto , CA.
chris notes: also, vmware can also let you choose an "undoable" disk mode! this means you don't have to commit the changes a guest OS makes to your hard drive. see this page.