check out my message in the forum, however this is how it will go in a nutshell:
First off how old is the image? If the image was taken recently, you'll probably be able to simply restore the image and reboot, then the hardware detection process will begin detecting the new hardware and shortly you'll find yourself at the login screen and that's it. If you have the luxury, take a current image and restore that instead.
If you have an older image that still hasn't passed the tombstone period, worst case use your system state backup and do a non-authoritative restore in Directory Services Restore mode