Usually the a:/ drive if being used to save certain docs etc will try and access each time the doc is opened or saved (even if its now being saved elsewhere) so it can in some cases bottle up cd writers (not the norm though!!)

The error on the CD writers etc certainly sounds like an issue Microsoft Had when people 'Upgraded to XP' for some reason it did not like the recording programming of ROXIO the makers of easy cd creator and others. So it sounds to me more like that issue. But that wouldnt muck up a floppy drive mate.