universal restore works on one machine but not another

I am having a problem using universal restore. I created an image of windows 2000 Server (dell pc). That pc is up and is running ok I just wanted to move it and all the apps to a faster pc.
As a test I restored the image to a different Dell PC with different hardware and it restored just fine. However, that pc is pretty old and only has 512 RAM
So I found a better PC, Dimension 8300 P4 3.0 with 2 GBs RAM.
I restored the SAME image using universal restore and it restored successfully, so I thought. I rebooted and I got a BSOD (something along the lines of stop: c00000218 Registry Cannot load the Hive. \\SystemRoot\System32\Config\Software Registry file failure.

I was able to get the system up by restoring a backup Software Key from c:\winnt\repair\software folder. None of my apps are working however.
What can I do to get it to same state as the working server? I can get any files from the "original" pc as it is still running.

All drives in all of these Dells are all IDE, no SATA and no SCSI
thanks for any help

 

Well I solved my own problem. I was lucky the current live server was still running. Good luck to anyone with the issue who doesn't have access to the System State.

I backed up the System State to a CD then restored the system state to the PC that could not load the original registry. So far all is ok and all of my software is running as hoped for.