Need help with 16500A floppys

I have an HP 16500A analyzer with original 720k disks. Problem is that only the rear drive seems to read the disks. I am suspicious that the front drive is bad. I am using stock 720k (single hole for write protect only) and trying to format them in both front and rear. I also am not able to read the stock originals with any program under either linux or dos. I realize that these seem to be formatted in a proprietary HP format. I luckily downloaded all the kits from the Agilent site before they were thoughtfully erased by Agilent. However these programs have not produced anything but floppy images which I cannot get onto a disk either. I should also explain that I am trying to use the 1.44 disks on my PC to do the format of the 720k disks. All I can seem to do is get formatted dos disks, but the HP write program fails. Also all attempts as mentioned to get data off HP disks onto a linux box or windows box have failed. I know that under dos there is a format byte in the first sector that confuzes the bios and windows systems if it is not properly set. I tried the read mode of "rawrite" that i had anyway just as a desperation move. I also tryed a forced format "dd" input from the 720k device on linux. This last should bypass any media format bytes, and set the floppy path to just that format. Still no joy. My current thought is to dredge my stock of junk for a 720 K drive and try it on a dos or linux box. the main problem that I can think of between making new disks on the pc and reading them on the analyzer is the possiblity of formatting problems due to the head width. I pretty much am convinced the front floppy on the thing is bad, so I need one of those. I don't know if it is common, or a weird one specialized to HP yet or not. I also have not been able to clean it, as I need to buy a fresh supply of alcohol (isopropyl) to clean with. thanks jim