How to Install any Linux(Mint) Directly from ISO image Dual boot Windows 7

Till now, probably you know how to install linux by burning the ISO image to a cd/DVD or using a USB flash drive with softwares like UNETBOOTIN and others. Now, If I tell you that you don't need any CD or DVD or even a USB pendrive to install Linux in your Hard Drive, would you believe it?

In my previous video I have shown How to install any Linux Distro in WUBI Directlly from ISO image -
youtube.com/watch?v=Jtzm4DOdrKw

The main disadvantage of WUBI is that it installs the OS inside Windows, inside a Folder. As Windows still uses NTFS file System a large amount of root.disk (which is actually a EXT3/EXT4 filesystem) can cause a inaccessible FRAGMENTED file which can harm your magnetic Hard disk.

So, after you get familiar with the linux Environment, It's Time to respect Linux as an Operating System and not as a program that you can remove from control Panel.

Here I will show you How to Install any Linux Distribution in a separate partition Directly from an ISO image stored in the hard Drive alongside Windows - Dual Boot.

In Windows booting from an ISO file is not possible, whether in Linux, a small Tweak in the Grub configuration lets you do that easily.

We can do ISO BOOT using a program called EASYBCD - neosmart.net/EasyBCD/
But it seems to depend on latest version of .NET Framework and will not work on Windows XP only machines.

So, here is the HACK. We are gonna install GRUB in Windows.

Download the Grub2Win zip file from here -
sourceforge.net/projects/grub2win/

Extract Grub2 in your C:\ drive and run Grub2Win.exe
You can customize boot options. Now, we will use the POWER of Grub2 to boot from Linux LIVE CD/DVD images.

How to add and customize the boot entries manually?
You can tweak the available options in grub2win window to customize the boot menu, but here I'm gonna show you how to do it manually.
Don't change any thing and click OK. this will just make an BCD entry in Windows 7 with just one boot entry - Windows 7 (default).
Close grub2Win. You can find that the program creates a new file named "GRUB.CFG"

Now, we will add the MINT boot entry in the GRUB configuration file. Open the GRUB.CFG file in a text editor like NOTEPAD.
Add an extra menuentry just after the default "Windows" menuentry -
________________________________

menuentry "Linux Mint" {
set isofile="/linuxmint-17.1-cinnamon-32bit.iso"
loopback loop (hd0,1)$isofile
linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=$isofile noprompt noeject
initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
}
_______________________________
Remember: Here in this case the ISO file is in the first partition of the first disk so, the file location is (hd0,1), if you put the ISO file elsewhere change the loop device location accordingly.

You can add any ubuntu based linux distro like this way, all you need is to check the casper folder inside the iso file for correct initrd file extension (it may be .xz, .gz, etc.) and change the menuentry settings accordingly.


Once restarted, you will see an extra boot entry "Grub 2 For Windows". Select Mint and you will enter the LIVE session.

Now if you try to install mint in your Hard Drive, it will give you a prompt to Unmount all the Drive to change or resize the partition table, but it won't let you do that easily. It'll tell you the drive can't be unmounted becauose of the /ISODEVICE is there. If you go to that folder you will see all the contents of your Drive along with the ISO file itself is there.

So, what do we get from this?
The Drive itself is mounted in the /ISODEVICE folder and to unmount the Drive we need to forcefully unmount the /ISODEVICE first, which makes the ISO file iteself unavailable for the rest of the process.

Is this even possible? The Computer is currently running from the ISO file as we have virtually inserted the Mint Disk inside the DVD Drive. If we unmount The ISODEVICE, wouldn't the computer FREEZE ?
As we've successfully boot from the ISO file and entered the LIVE session, we don't need the ISO file any more.

Okay, now how to unmount the ISODEVICE?
open terminal and enter the following command -
sudo umount -l -r -f /isodevice

Voilà, you have now unmounted the partition and see the computer don't hangs.

Now you can resize the partition and Continue to install mint like you always do.