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What is the difference between creating an image of a disk vs. copying all the files on the disk?

What is the difference between writing an image to a disk vs. formatting a disk and copying a collection of files?

Does the answer depend on the image file format, e.g. iso/img/dmg?

Praxeolitic
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Image is referencing a file system image. An image is a replication of a file system in addition to the content. The actual sectors are replicated. In the process, content can be replicated too. The actual file format of an image follows certain formats which is where the different extensions come into play. When copying files, generally only the content is being replicated.

Val
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    Not entirely true for Windows WIM files. A WIM is a disk image. You just have to "pre-prepare" the disk/filesystem before you can apply the "image" (the WIM). When you capture a WIM you are, in essence, zipping the files up on the computer - I.e. It is no longer "sector-based" imaging like XP. – Kinnectus Dec 12 '14 at 19:06
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    A Mac .dmg contains no 'sector by sector' data either. It is, I guess, a sparse bundle of sorts [I'm no nix expert] – Tetsujin Dec 12 '14 at 19:20