Cannot Load Device Driver – Previous Instance of Device Driver Still In Memory

When you try to plug in an external drive (or other device), you get this error in the device manager:

Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware because a previous instance of the device driver is still in memory. (Code 38)

This is also accompanied by the following error in the event log:

Source: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-PnP
Event Log: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-PnP/Configuration
Event ID: 411
Device USB\xxx had a problem starting.

Driver Name: uaspstor.inf

This is a bug in Windows that Microsoft seem to have acknowledged, but never offered a fix for (My research shows that it’s a but that’s been around for many years and many versions of Windows). Officially, Microsoft suggest updating the driver or rebooting the computer. The workaround is to reboot the computer as updating the driver is rarely an option.