I believe the problem may be that imaging may not make a copy of everything. check the c:\users\user-name\appdata\roaming\intuit\turbotax\tyxx\ for two files with the extension .json if present then here's a link to other steps you can try
https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/install-products/turbotax-2019-turbotax-...
"It shouldn't ask me to activate it again if I restore it to the same computer." you would think but i had a similar issue restoring after a windows update. in my case i had a cloned drive, not an image, and i copied those two files from the clone to the operating folder and it worked.
