Is this a problem with branded machine?

I had self built PC at work which clone successfully with Macrium. However when I tried to clone a HP server, errors kept popping up until I gave up (not even HDD to SSD), just HDD to HDD. Gave up and used image like you mentioned and it worked on the 1st try. Weird.

Thanks for sharing. I end up did not try as laptop still under warranty... and the screws were covered by warranty stickers 

Could be a BIOS issue / bug probably. Been using AOMEI Backupper Free for many years so far so good from my experiences.