floppy challenge, trying to ready a machine for win98se install

Hi all,

I was given a Gateway 2000 P5-133 desktop computer, I have been
trying to get all the components working so I can install win98 on it,
it currently had win95 and does boot up. My intent is to fdisk and
format the drive to do a clean install of win98se.

I've replaced the floppy drive, the CD drive, removed a Nic card that
seemed to be causing a system resource error on bootup.. and thought
I had it all ready to go, but even though the floppy drive will
display the files on the floppy disk, it won't let me copy them to the
hard drive, or access them in any way... I can highlight them,
either individually or with the Ctrl+A, drag them to the HD, the
transfer window comes up , then I get the following error: "Cannot
copy filename, The system cannot read from the specified device"

This is the 3rd floppy drive I've put in here, the first two wouldn't
even show the files... all these floppy drives came out of working
units. Oh, I've also replaced the ribbon cable to the floppy.

On bootup it does auto detect all the drives (C:, D:, and the CDRom)
and the floppy and tells me it's "installed".

I was able to copy the win98 folder to the D: drive from the CD, and
will install from there, is this a problem that could be fixed by the
O/S or is this a hardware problem?

Thanks for any help or ideas.

niteowl