How to fix the issue with “Windows update cannot currently check for updates, because the service is not currently running”

After cloning a hard drive you are getting the following error: Windows update cannot currently check for updates, because the service is not currently running”

I got this error after cloning windows 7 Home Premium to another hard drive, computer boot up fine but I wasn’t able to do windows update at all with the error above.

Automatic Updates service was fine, all services were fine.

I did some research on the issue and find interesting findings:

For Automatic Updates to run then perfectly then the following services to be running:

1. Windows Update

2. Cryptographic Services

3. Background Intelligent Transfer Service

4. Windows Event Log

I checked the eventlog and find that there was eventid 257:

“The Cryptographic services service failed to initialize the Catalog Database, the ESENT error was: -583”

To fix the issue I upgraded the Intel Rapid Storage to the latest version, it fixed event id 257 and the windows update.

 Hopefully that will help someone!