Yah, I was in the exact situation as you are. Old Motherboard refuses to boot from USB and DVD drive is already damaged leaving me with the only option to directly boot from the ISO image.
The easiest way to do that is to install Grub
in windows and then let grub boot from the ISO image.
Download the Grub2Win
zip file from here ->
http://sourceforge.net/projects/grub2win/
Extract Grub2
in your C:\ drive and run Grub2Win.exe
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
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.
Once restarted, you will see an extra boot entry Grub 2 For Windows
. Select Linux Mint
and you will enter the LIVE session
.
Now Open terminal and type the following command to unmount the /ISODEVICE
sudo umount -l -r -f /isodevice
Now you can resize the partition and Continue to install mint like you always do.
Watch This Step By Step Ultimate Guide to install Linux Mint Directly from ISO image Stored in Hard Drive and Dual Boot With Windows -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FnNrvF-Tw0