If I put a floppy in the drive and attempt to “Send to” the floppy I get a message that it isn’t formatted and asks if I want to format it. If I say yes it takes me to the format window, but when I try either a fast or complete format the computer locks. The same thing happens if I just right click the A drive and try to format. I have used several brands of pre formatted new blank floppies.

The computer also slows considerably when I right click the floppy to select format – perhaps two minutes of the hourglass before the format window appears. Sometimes it locks completely when I select format and sometimes I can get out of it with Ctrl+Alt+Del.

The floppy drive reads fine in both Windows and DOS.

I have tried removing the floppy controller in device manager and rebooting. It seems to reload the floppy controller OK but the problem persists.

Any ideas before I buy a new floppy drive?