Please help!!! Cannot run Windows Update in win 7 pro after changing hard drive.

Hi everyone,
I have been using my thinkpad x201s for more than one year by now. And recently I change a new and larger hard drive for my laptop. When I tried the thinkpad rescue and recovery disc on the new hard drive, everything works fine except that I cannot run Windows Updates after the installation was finished. The recovery DVDs were burned directly from the original image stored in the computer when the first I received my laptop last year.
Every time when I try to run the Windows Update, it shows the following: "Windows Update cannot currently check for updates, because the service is not running, you may need to restart your computer."
I restarted my computer later but nothing changed. Can't run Windows Updates and can't even install IE9.
I then moved back to my old hard drive and everything is normal, no problem with Windows Updates. I also tried to create a back-up image by running win 7 Backups and Restore. Later when I changed back to the new drive and followed the instructions to restore my system from the image I created earlier in a USB drive, it worked except that still the system can't run Windows Updates program.
I'm now getting very confused and upset, is it something to do with the software copyright? It's been a week now and I tried to Google the similar problem but no solutions work here. All I want to do is moving my current system to the new hard drive so that I can continue to use my laptop but it just failed updating every time.
Could anyone kindly tell me what to do when changing hard drive in order to avoid the problem I'm dealing with? Sorry I'm not a pro type user and just want my laptop to work appropriately.
My warranty has already expired so I guess the Lenovo Technical Hotline wouldn't answer my questions anymore. Please help!! Much appreciated.
Thanks so much in advance!!

 

Well, did you try starting the service manually? Or at least verifying that it's not running?

 

I think I did. I saw a post regarding fixing "can't run Windows Updates" problem from another website and followed the solution steps they provided. (one step is to manually uncheck and check the windows updates option.) But it unfortunately doesn't work in my case.

Another guy there mentioned it might because the OEM version WIN 7 Althoriztion code is somehow attached to the original hardwares of that computer. So when the configurations change, it doesn't allow you to go pass the verification.

My case here is that the win 7 has been successfully activated under the "System".

Not quite sure if he's right about it, but it's strange that the old hard drive works perfectly on the updates when I plug it back. And I have tried several different back-up files incluing the factory verstion on the new drive, it just makes no difference.

Sorry, I'm just an accountant and not a technical guy who knows the win 7 system well. I'll appreciate any help that can make it easy to solve my problem.

 

Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services > Windows Update. Make sure it's set to "Automatic" or "Automatic (delayed start)" and reboot. I just tried setting it to manual and got the same error.

 

Hi commander wolf, thanks for the replies. I followed the suggestion but still the same. The original setting was Automatic (Delayed Start) and I changed it to Automatic but still the same after restarting my computer. Anything else I can do? Thanks.

 

When you checked the current startup setting of the Windows Update service, did you notice what it's current Status was? There's a column there in the services list that will say "Started," or be blank if the service isn't running. If it isn't running, highlight the service and then choose "Start the service" from the pane on the left.

I'm willing to bet that if the service isn't running, it won't start properly whenever you attempt to start it manually. If the service fails to start, it may give you an error that you can post here to get more help.

If the service is already running, you likely have some other issue that's being misreported in the Windows Update application. If the update window lists an error code, like 0x8xxxxxxx, using Google search or posting it here might yield some answers.

When I did a quick Google check for your issue, I came across someone saying that they were able to fix the problem by updating their Intel Rapid Storage drivers, because the hard disk they were using was 1TB in size, and apparently this caused some sort of issue. This was if the service was listed as "Started" in their services list.

 

Is it an Advanced Format drive?

There's a known issue with Windows and AdvFormat drives; one of the symptoms being Windows Update failing to run.

Get the latest Rapid Storage drivers, then run this hotfix manually:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982018

 

Thanks so much, it finally solved my problem.