Booting persistent disk image

Is it possible to run a persisten disk image from hd using a boot loader? What i mean is that i've created a usb bootable version of knoppix with persistent disk image (knoppix-data.img) and made a lot of chages there. Now is it possible to copy this (boot and KNOPPIX folders) to some partition on my computer and run it through grub or lilo without putting in the usb stick?

If not is it possible to use the stick to boot and then redirect to the hd copy, so that the usb stick could be unmounted with knoppix still running?