A backup image should be, literally, a true cluster-for-cluster duplicate of the source volume.  This criterion is considerably more strict than simply stating that the image contains all of the files from the source volume, because it implies not only that the “image has everything” but also that “everything is in its proper place.”

Interestingly, I can find no instances of a user actually testing this property of a backup image.  To do so, therefore, I employed a simple approach:  mount an image as a drive (using ShadowProtect Desktop 3.0) in Windows, use WinHex 14.4 to retrieve the LCNs (Logical Cluster Numbers) for a file from the mounted image, and compare that to the LCNs of the same file residing on the source volume.  A test of a set of files shows that the file location is captured and represented in the image just as it exists on the source volume.

While this test didn’t compare the LCNs of every file on the image to the source volume, it does demonstrate that (indeed!) “an image is an image” — i.e., the image contains not only the contents of the source volume, but also its layout as well.

P.S.:  Using WinHex to view a mounted image is a quite intriguing technique that to the best of my knowledge has not been reported elsewhere.  In addition to exploring the LCNs of files on the mounted image, you can also examine the Master Boot Record (or any other sector(s)), etc.

The Shadow, your post highlights the fact that Ghost 2003/8.3 doesn't produce an image backup, strictly speaking (at least when configured with its typical, default settings).  An image is a one-to-one "reflection" or "photograph" of the source, and this is what Ghost 9/10/12 and ShadowProtect, for example, produce; whereas, what Ghost 2003/8.3 delivers is an "archive".  There is no functional difference between the two, of course; and each has a few unique advantages that the other lacks (e.g., ability to mount an image versus the defragmentation benefit of an archive).

Please consider my initial post simply as an exploration into a topic that had not been previously investigated.