Hello Steve, thanks for the suggestion. I know we bought a mains-powered USB hub some time ago and used it on our desktop PC, but cannot locate it at present. I recently bought the Intenso 6002510 Memory Station 320GB USB 2.0 2.5 Inch hard drive which needs no mains power and I had no problems connecting it and doing a system backup on my laptop. I know from my Google search there are problems with floppy drives when running windows 7. Best wishes, Clive pallett ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq