Windows Update Error - "Windows Update cannot currently check for updates,..." - FIXED

I upgraded my Lenovo laptop (running Windows Vista 32 bit) hard drive from 120 GB to 500GB. I used Acronis to clone the hard drive and was successful in doing so. Everything worked well except for the Windows update. It has been a year that I have not updated. If I manually update Windows, the following error is what I get:

I decided to search the internet for possible solutions. I have tried a lot of them too which unfortunately did not solve the issue that I have. Some of the things I read and tried are the following:

1 - Ran Microsoft FixIt from the Microsoft Website - Did not work for me
2 - Force Start Bits and Wuauserv services - Did not work for me
3 - Set Windows Update settings to "Never Update" and then back to "Update Automatically" - Did not work for me
4 - Stop Update Service, Locate and delete "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\" folder and its contents and Start Update Service

NOTE: Although it did not work in my particular case, the above might work for others.

I stopped trying and tried to research again after a month and I stumbled upon a thread at the Microsoft TechNet site. There was a contributor named "Nick-Tech". He mentioned that the issue is sometimes caused by a device driver for the Intel Rapid Storage. The trick here is for you to be able to determine what is installed in your laptop/desktop and update the driver manually from the Intel site. Please be aware that if you use Windows' device manager to check if for driver updates, it might report that you already have the correct/updated driver for your device.

I searched the Intel site (https://downloadcenter.intel.com/) for "Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver". Selected the driver that matched my set-up.

I downloaded and ran the file -> "STOR_allOS_9.6.0.1014_PV.exe". Note: You may have to look at the readme file to confirm if you have the correct one.

After the installation, the Windows update is now working perfectly.