I have wondered the same, but I don't know. I didn't think of trying other devices at the time.
I had just returned from vacation and the computer had updated Windows, graphic card and anti-virus program, and I now suspect that one of those updates might have caused the problem; main suspect being the graphic card.
I first connected my card-reader using the solution above, then my usb hard-drive (had to do this manually also) but when I connected the Kobo it found the driver by itself quite fast, so now my theory is that when Windows was searching for the drivers it was pointing in a wrong direction (~folder).
Although I find it strange that Windows update wasn't able to find the driver on-line either.
Main thing is, I'm on "speaking" terms with my Kobo now
