In vmware config wizard, it will prompt you whether you want to use an already installed OS (if I remember correctly).
But the things is that, the hardware presented by vmware to the guest OS is different from the one presented directly. That shouldn't be a problem for OS like WinNT/2k, linux, bsd etc. (video driver is going to be a problem tho), but it'll be a problem for Win9x/Me. For Win9x/Me, when you run in vmware, it will redetect everything. And when you switch it back to run it natively, it will redetect everything again, which can be very anoying.
But the things is that, the hardware presented by vmware to the guest OS is different from the one presented directly. That shouldn't be a problem for OS like WinNT/2k, linux, bsd etc. (video driver is going to be a problem tho), but it'll be a problem for Win9x/Me. For Win9x/Me, when you run in vmware, it will redetect everything. And when you switch it back to run it natively, it will redetect everything again, which can be very anoying.