VirtualBox: using physical partition as virtual drive-Collection of common programming errors

Background: I am using VirtualBox installed on Windows 7. From within VirtualBox I am using Xubuntu as a virtual OS. The reason I chose this approach is so that I don’t have to keep turning off Windows and rebooting from Xubuntu every time I needed to switch OSes. And VirtualBox’s seamless mode is pretty amazing to allow me see Xubuntu and Windows 7 all in one screen.

Issue: Now I am thinking of a way to have Xubuntu more integrated into my system. By this I mean I want to have a physical partition for Xubuntu. But I want to still have the feeling of the seamless mode.

Question: So finally, my question is: is it possible to load a partition in VirtualBox as a virtual OS?

Case examples: Ideal scenario would be: I physically boot up and login to Windows 7. Now I want to access Xubuntu, so I load VirtualBox and access my Xubuntu partition without rebooting. And the other way around too, i.e. I boot up the system, login to Xubuntu, and can access the actual Windows 7 partition through VirtualBox.

Other info: Please note that I am not talking about getting access to files, as I have a completely separate partition for my files, and am very familiar with VirtualBox’s Shared Folders option.