Hi.  I am running XP-Pro on a Dell 8600 laptop.  The Dell has a Hitachi 60gb drive.
    I own 2 identical 60gb drives.
Using ShadowDesktop 3.2, I took an image of my 60gb.  I put that image on an Iomega 320 USB20 drive.  I (think I) did this from the program, not the Recovery CD (sorry).

  After successfully taking this image, I opened the laptop, remove the drive (call it Hitachi-1) and inserted Hitachi-2).
I then restored (using the Recovery CD) to the drive now in the laptop (Hitachi-2).

It booted to the XP-Pro Login screen.  I entered my ID and PW.  It sat there for a long time, then displayed "closing connections" and brought me back to the :Login screen.  I tried both David and Administrator.  I tried disconnecting the network cable.
I then did another restore.  This time I checked the "Use MBR in the image" - same failure.

Note: I am NEW to Shadow-Desktop.  I am NOT thinking I've done things correctly.  There may be settings or checkboxes I've failed to check. 
I can only tell you it didn't work.

One more thing: When choosing the destination for the restore (C: in this case), you can right-click on that dirve and (I forget how they phrase it) empty it or free up the space.  I did not do that.

Thanks

I'm not sure why the system would not allow you to log in.  Can you access Safe Mode?  It sounds like the restore process worked as intended, but there is something else going on.

If you do decide to try the restore again, you may want to delete the partition in advance (since you're not sure it's partition the way you want) and go with a fresh start.  During the restore process, you should be able to right-click on the destination drive and create a new partition that is exactly the same size as the old one, or use the entire disk, either one should work.  Restore the MBR from the image file, the Disk Signature, and the Hidden Disk Track.  You probably do not need HIR, but you may check it also if you want to (no harm in it).