ACK: Same here 
Even if Workstation 8 does not actively runnig it flashes the harddrive about every 20 .. 40 s.
In an very old document I did read that this can be configured anyhow. But that guy missed to mention how this could be done.
$ sudo iotop -obtqqq |grep "vmware"
08:39:20 2421 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 51.00 K/s 0.00 % 0.00 % vmware-hostd -a /etc/vmware/hostd/config.xml
08:39:40 2337 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 50.96 K/s 0.00 % 0.00 % vmware-hostd -a /etc/vmware/hostd/config.xml
08:41:00 2337 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 50.99 K/s 0.00 % 0.00 % vmware-hostd -a /etc/vmware/hostd/config.xml
08:41:40 2421 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 50.60 K/s 0.00 % 0.00 % vmware-hostd -a /etc/vmware/hostd/config.xml
08:42:00 2452 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 51.08 K/s 0.00 % 0.00 % vmware-hostd -a /etc/vmware/hostd/config.xml
08:42:20 2421 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 50.99 K/s 0.00 % 0.00 % vmware-hostd -a /etc/vmware/hostd/config.xml
08:42:40 2337 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 50.97 K/s 0.00 % 0.00 % vmware-hostd -a /etc/vmware/hostd/config.xml
08:43:01 2421 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 51.02 K/s 0.00 % 0.00 % vmware-hostd -a /etc/vmware/hostd/config.xml
$ ps -ax | grep "vmware"
1621 ? Ssl 0:00 /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmblock-fuse -o subtype=vmware-vmblock,default_permissions,allow_other /var/run/vmblock-fuse
1825 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/bin/vmnet-dhcpd -s 6 -cf /etc/vmware/vmnet1/dhcpd/dhcpd.conf -lf /etc/vmware/vmnet1/dhcpd/dhcpd.leases -pf /var/run/vmnet-dhcpd-vmnet1.pid vmnet1
1831 ? S 0:00 /usr/bin/vmnet-natd -s 6 -m /etc/vmware/vmnet8/nat.mac -c /etc/vmware/vmnet8/nat/nat.conf
1981 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/bin/vmnet-dhcpd -s 6 -cf /etc/vmware/vmnet8/dhcpd/dhcpd.conf -lf /etc/vmware/vmnet8/dhcpd/dhcpd.leases -pf /var/run/vmnet-dhcpd-vmnet8.pid vmnet8
2013 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/sbin/vmware-authdlauncher
2131 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/bin/vmware-usbarbitrator
2337 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-hostd -a /etc/vmware/hostd/config.xml
3846 pts/0 S+ 0:00 grep --color=auto vmware
3925 pts/1 S+ 0:00 grep --color=auto vmware
Obviously process no. 2337 is responsible.
Anyone out there who knows to pull the correct register?