Heh, you've tried that many different hardware combinations, that it really sounds that hw isn't the issue. Are you sure you remember which way the write protect tab should be?
And how do you boot to get the format command? From WB floppy? From HD installation? Patched installation? There are software solutions to prevent formatting too... for example MCP can disable formatting for the selected devices for the security reasons. Can you format RAD: drive if you mount it?
