Just in case, an image is used to restore your hard drive to a previous condition (wipes the current install). For instance, you current hard quits and you have to install a new one. The image would bring it back just like the first drive was still there at the time the image was made. It does depend, of course, on exactly what partitions you include in the image, but it is normally accessed through the Repair scenario and is not meant to be used for individual file retrieval. Although I have not tried Whs's procedure, it does sound interesting.
A backup of your files is a different thing and can be accessed through the Backup and Restore utility.