If a machine won't boot from a floppy, then the first thing I would suspect is the floppy, not the hard drive, no matter how corrupt.
Eliminate the floppy disc itself by trying to use it to boot up another pc
If that works, suspect the floppy drive on the original machine (maybe compatability problem?) or the bios settings.
When you try to boot, does the floppy whir away, or does the drive light flash on the hard drive as if it is trying to load from there?
Watch out for bios settings that control the order of boot, you may need to move the floppy to the top of the list in this situation.
[This message has been edited by stickyb (edited 17 April 2001).]