I have a 3 1/2' floppy drive along with a zip drive, a cd drive and a hard drive.  The operating system is Windows XP Home edition.  The problem is that every time I attempt to read a floppy the computer asks me if I want to format the disk.  When I check on the drive to see it is operating properly the computer tells me it is operating properly.  What can be done to get the drive to read and write data?

   My guess would be that either your floppies are bad, your drive is bad, or your drive needs cleaned.
   Use a cleaning floppy to clean it.  Also put rubbing alcohol on a Qtip and use it to clean the inside of the drive especially the head.