Windows 7 Update Stuffed... nothing seems to work

[d000hg]

Eek wins and I now love him. It's that "advanced format" 4k sector thing. Seems amazing this kind of thing can happen and "Windows 7 won't work with SSDs" isn't a widely known issue!

[VectraMan]

Presumably it's to do with the licensing thinking it's a different PC.

My Windows 7 desktop has been buggered like this for ages. It started saying it wasn't genuine, then somebody on here gave me some advice that stopped the message but has meant it still won't update. I keep meaning to reinstall in the hope that it'll sort it all out.

[eek]

1 quick google following the first link that talks about a new disk takes me to a forum post that links to Windows Update Broken After Cloning Hard drive | GeezBlog

which is exactly what I had to do to fix this problem on my dad's laptop...

[d000hg]

A while ago I realised Windows Update wasn't working. It didn't tell me or anything, but I happened to notice things were out of date and tried to update manually:

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Windows Update
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Windows Update cannot currently check for updates, because the service is not running. You may need to restart your computer.
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OK
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I've tried to follow the steps here: Solved: Windows update cannot currently check for updates in Windows 8, 7 or Vista - wintips.org - Windows Tips & How-tos

But the fixit tool doesn't help wiping SoftwareDistribution doesn't either, when I restart the service I get the same error.

Any ideas? It makes me nervous I can't update, and also means I can't register for my free copy of Windows 10.

The only thing that's changed (I know of) is I cloned my PC across onto a new SSD drive. But everything else works fine.