Akai S1000 / S1100 samplers

Hi all. I hope somebody can help me. I have an s1000kb (tank!!) v2
firmware that turns on ok and lights up. The existing floppy drive and
2 other floppies I have tried in it's place don't seem to want to
work. I Formatted a os 4.4 disk using windows 98 and all seemed to go
well but the s1000 doesn't want to recognise it. The usual "format not
recognised" and "trying a different density" and then the next stage
is when I try to format I get "disc is write protected" I am doing
this all under os 2 and 1.44 meg HD discs. Do I need to initially use
720 kb discs under v2 to upgrade os then load os in and try
formatting? I only ask as I haven't got a 720 kb disc and would go
hunting only if somebody thought it may solve the problem. 
I have of course made sure the write protect on the disc is off!!!
Good to see there is a group of people out there using the s1000 and I
hope to join you soon
Cheers
Andy