blue screen and inability to recover system image

My laptop has experienced blue screen issues

I tried system image recovery but failed. I followed this note from the Windows website: "How to restore a Windows 10 system image to an existing or larger storage device"

I boot from the USB on which I had copied the windows ISO file . it brings me to a windows page
I click next
then "repair your computer"
then "troubleshoot"
then "system image recovery"
then "attach the back up hard drive or insert the final DVD from a backup set and click retry"
there it says
"Make sure your external hard disk where the system image is located is connected and turned on."

I have both a USB file with the ISO or an external SSD drive (Samsung) with the same ISO file plugged in, but the radio button for "Use the latest available sytem image(recommended) is greyed out"
all I can tick is "Select a system image" and at that point it does not find the external hard drive. it does not see the USB flash drive either. it permits going to a Network folder but when I supply my credentials it says it cannot reach the network.

help please!