Vmware with physical partition under windows

if you get the error Operation on file "\\.\PhysicalDrive1" failed 

then you need to get the disk offline

from a prompt  launch diskpart

and then 

DISKPART > select disk 1

DISKPART > offline disk 

sources:

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/VMWare/Q_26689536.html

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/48ea44b0-9962-49e3-95a1-568275851753/take-a-hdd-offlineonline?forum=winserverpowershell