I believe this solution fixed not only my broken images issue but my non-populating data issue as well. This might be a solution for those who have issues with broken images and missing data (knowing your database is populated) on the fresh install of MS2-MAX 1.7.

I found a .htaccess file that had instructions on configuring Apache based Web Servers located at "/catalog/includes/.htaccess". Be sure to configure your Apache Server according to these instructions. The installation documentation that comes with MS2-MAX needs to mention things like this more clearly all in one document.

Just a hunch though. Hope it works for you as it did for my particular problem.