removeable floppy drive

[shad2]

anyone having problems formatting a floppy, tried countless times moving that stupid write protection tab up and down. system keeps telling me " can`t copy or format to disk,remove or move write protection tab." went out and bought new ones and still tells same story. never had problems til now.
HELP HELP

[Flash]

This is a very amatuer reply, somebody please correct me if it is insane, just my mind working away though.
The little tab stops a moving part in the actual drive from passing through the hole on the corner of the disk. If you have tried with several disks that are clearly not protected, I think that the problem is the little moving bit inside the drive, it has probably got jammed and therefore is contantly telling the PC that the disk in the drive is protected. Either carefully try and free-up this little part or invest in a new drive, they only cost £10 here in UK so it is not too drastic a move. Or the electric component attatched to the moving bit could be broken, either way, I do not think it is the disks that are the problem.
This may be rubbish advice but just be careful when poking around in the drive.
Someone with a greater knowledge please either back-up this advice or correct me. If we do not try, we do not find out.
Good luck.

[Eli]

Do you have a virus program that monitors the floppy drive by any chance? Mine won't let me delete a file from a floppy unless I disable the protection. Just a thought...

[shad2]

have had drive apart, noticed a little piece were the slot for the write tab goes,it does not extend up like the one next to it does,could this be the problem.
In reply to virus, the only virus protection i have is for the whole system, it doesn`t monitor the floppy