Diskette station, formatting and Explorer

I have two computers that run W7 (one Ultimate, one Professional).
Both computers have a properly working 3.5" diskette station.
On one of these computers I needed to format a blank HD diskette for some upgrading purposes.

I then noticed*that Windows Explorer didn't list the diskette station as one of the drives in the system.
The drive IS in the hardware properties list without any mark.
Using "my computer" I could see the diskette station and right clicked it to start formatting the diskette.
At that moment Windows Explorer showed a message that Explorer had stopped working/
I could choose from "Looking for a solution at the internet and then close the program" and "Close the program".

Since this happened several times, even after a restart of the computer, I moved myself to the other computer.
At this computer I had the same experience as mentioned previously.
I assume this is some flaw in W7.
There are not many systems nowadays that need an operational diskette station, but it comes in handy at times.

I therefore like to know if other people have had this experience and found a workaround to have a usable diskette station.

Welmoed.

More...