Why are you formatting floppies? It's no longer necessary. Just open & delete any files on the floppy and copy a saved file from your hard drive. Make sure you save to hard drive first, check the size to make sure it will fit on a floppy, then copy. If even reading floppies is impossible, you should check the drive itself. You could have a cable problem, bad disk or the drive itself has failed.

Yes, I've tried right-clicking the A: drive and selecting format.  As soon as I right-click, however, the A: drive light comes on as if it is reading, but My Computer freezes up:  not even the white options box pops up.

Have you right-clicked the A: drive and selected Format?

 

There might be a problem with the connection of the floppy drive to the system. If this is a desktop, power the system off and check to be sure the ribbon cable connector is firmly seated on the floppy drive. If it's a laptop, make certain that the floppy drive is fully seated in the module bay.

If the physical connection looks good, there may be a problem with the floppy drive itself.

Jim

I'm formatting floppies because Word says they're not formatted, or they're formatted for a Macintosh.  I don't believe this, I bought them formatted.  Anyway, even when I try to save from Word, Word freezes up just like My Computer does, and won't respond.  I don't understand this.

If you've tried more than one diskette, then it could very well be that the drive itself is defective or the read/write heads are dirty.  You can purchase a floopy drive cleaner diskette or you can just replace the drive.  Floppy drives aren't very reliable or durable IMHO, especially when not used frequently.