I have seen products like Norton Ghost that make an 'Image' of a hard
drive.  I have also seen document storage programs that keep an
'Image' of documents on a server for easy organization and retrieval. 
What is the difference between an 'Image' and a 'Copy' in these cases.

Thanks!

Hello Tiewire,

The comment by moocowjuice is basically correct for Norton Ghost - an
image in that case is [by default] a bit by bit copy of the original
media. Ghost can do a number of other tasks - for reference, see -
  http://ghost.radified.com/ghost_1.htm
a nice introduction / guide to Norton Ghost or
  http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/ghost_personal/features.html
which Symantec provides to describe the key features of Ghost.

Note, an image of this type does not have to be a "bit by bit" copy.
For example a product such as System Imager:
  http://www.systemimager.org/
uses a directory structure to replicate the "image" of the master
system. Copies of that master system are made and then customized
using some related products. This is a product I have used when
maintaining a cluster of PC's or other similarly configured systems.

When dealing with document storage and storage management, there are
no clear definitions of the word "image" nor "copy" other than the
[possibly implied] guarantee that you will get back a [possibly not
exact] copy of what you put in. For example, a quick search using the
phrase
  "document storage" image
provides several references that indicate that images will be
compressed - perhaps using a lossy compression method. This uses the
word "image" as being equivalent to a picture. As another comparison,
searching with
  "document storage" "image copy"
provides currently about 31 web pages with topics such as:
 - generation of PDF files for real estate (capturing documents that
look like the original but have more capability)
 - capturing data for criminal investigations (more like Norton Ghost)
 - managing complex drawings, allowing annotations and measurements
from stored information
and so on.

Each of these systems / uses of systems expect a "copy" or "image" to
be somehow "the same but better" in some way. The better part may
depend on an index for searching, high speed network access,
traceability of access or modification, or other factors.

If you need some further explanation on this topic or if part of the
answer is unclear, please make a clarification request.
  --Maniac

Good answer.  Just what I was looking for.

thanks!

Not sure what you're talking about in regard to the document storage
programs but for Norton Ghost the Image is a bit-by-bit copy. For
example, if you make an image of a hard drive and the first program on
the hard drive's geometry is program A which is immediately followed
by program B, then the image will reflect that exact structure. If you
make a copy of those two programs and then put them on a new hard
drive, the order they are in might change.

Referencing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image

In computer science the word image can also mean an exact (bit-by-bit)
copy of the contents of some device, such as a hard disk, floppy disk,
CD-ROM, etc.. In particular,

    * A core image (or core dump) is a faithful copy of the data
stored in the main memory of a computer or process.
    * An executable image is a structured file containing machine
instructions and data, which can be loaded into a process's virtual
memory and executed. See kernel (computers).