floppy causes windows explorer to restart

when I click on on the A drive it causes windows explorer to restart.
It does not recognize that a floppy is installed. I cannot open or format a disk.
I have tried several cables, several drives and many different disks. different barnds pre-formatted, new, used, etc. i always get the same error-"please insert a floppy disk into drive A. then it says i need to format the disk. As soon as I click "format" it causes windows explorer to restart.

Can you access the floppy drive correctly from the command prompt? The reason I ask this is it could rule out a physical problem with the drive.

Do you have the floppy drive enabled in the BIOS settings of your motherboard?

the drive is setup in BIOS and it is recognozed by the system. it shows up in the hardware. I just installed a brand new floppy drive and it does the same thing.
I dont know how to search for it in command prompt.

Usually by typing "A:\" or "B:\", depending on which connector you connected the floppy to on the data cable. The connector on the end of the cable with the few wires twisted will be "A:\", if my memory serves me.

It makes no sense (to me!) but perhaps changing the letter designate might get you in. Open the Administartive tools in the Control Panel.
Select "Computer Management" in the right pane. Then "Disk Management in the left pane of the next window.
The floppy should have a letter designate, if not, that could be the problem. But, in any event, right click the floppy and select "Change drive letters and paths"
If it, by chance, does not have a letter assigned, give it A. Otherwise experiment with something like S

OK, just tried it. it says A: is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
B:\ the system cannot find the drive specified. The device manager says the driver is fine and the drive is functioning properly. I am running 64 bit but the driver says windows\system32\drivers\FDC.sys. Would that be a problem? if so, I have never come across a 64 bit driver for a floppy. Changing the drive letter to B or or F had no effect

Unless the driver is corrupted, I cannot see any reason connected to the file.
I have zipped up the two floppy drivers I found in the folder. You could try deleting yours and loading mine (Windows 7 - 64Bit).
Only other thing I can suggest is that, through the device manager, you uninstall the drivers and reboot and let Wiondows 7 reinstall them? Not too optimistyic about that idea, though.

Not the answer you are looking for, but floppies are very old technology. You could consider getting the dat off them, through safe mode or the command prompt, and rewriting it to USB plugs or a CD??

to davehc i was not able to download your file. it said the info was invalid. i tried to open it directly, drag and drop and cut and paste. the error message was always the same. I tried deleting the drive and program and each time, i would boot it with another drive or or cable 3 drives 3 cables, i tried all permutations.

I just downloaded and pened the file. Odd. Anyway, there was a site trasition at that particular moment, concenring such attachments. try this one.