system backup +system image

Welcome
Yes they are the same. In this article from MS, the terms are used as one. The article will give you additional information
Restore your computer from a system image backup

soulfood said:

is a system backup the same as a system image? thank you

Jein. Yes and no.

In Microsoft-speak, they are the same.

However, quite often what a person will mean when he says "system backup" is that he is referring to backing up his documents, his pictures, his music, etc. He is not talking about making a backup of his drive{s).

Win 7's Backup and Restore gives you both possibilities , although I find the data backup portion thereof to be weak.

The "system backup" portion (System Image backup) is excellent.

Image backup good. Data backup weak.

Help or confuse?

A system image backup by Win 7 always includes the partition (drive) containing the OS.

If you have more than one partition (drive), then you can also select any or all of them

If your music is on D:, your games, pics, etc on E:, then you can have D: and E: included in the system image backup.

I always include all parititions in a system image backup Takes longer but then I have a 100% image.

You can extract folders and files from a system image backup if needed.

Each drive is stored as a file, without any empty space, as a file - a VHD file.

For more info, there is google, there is WIN + F1 key combo and there are our fine tutorials:
Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup