restore system image blank screen with mouse cursor

when trying to restore system image on a blank hdd,

keep getting blank screen after PC boots from recovery drive

it does not show the blue screen of "US and other country languages"

was really time wasting waiting for the screen to go away but it would not

sometime a white circle keeping spinning too.

finally I figured it out.

it was a defective HDD that is stalling boot.

When PC boots from recovery USB drive it still checks HDD health somehow, and when detecting some issue it stalls and would not proceed to Windows PE environment.

switching out the HDD.  got back the normal blue screen quickly.