"unable to load basic.system"

[ludditetech@mac.com (Simon Williams)]

Here's an irritating problem:

I am unable to successfully copy the BASIC.SYSTEM file onto diskette.
I have both a //c with external drive and a //e with a single drive
(actually a duodisk with one busted drive). I have tried 3 different
Apple Utilities disks,  5 different source disks and 3 different
destination disks on both computers.
(if your keeping tabs, that's 90 different combinations -- or an
entire day shot...)
I've not had this problem in the past, though I have noted that the
copy utilities on the System disks seem to be less than 100% reliable.
Also, all the other files (PRODOS and various ABASIC programs) copied
fine and work if I boot with a different disk.
The destination disks I'm using are new but were originally formatted
DOS 3.3. and had some elementary school programs on them. I've
reformatted them to ProDOS in the past without problems.
I've catalogued the disks and they show BASIC.SYSTEM being present, 21
blocks and the "check that disk is readable" utility tells me they're
okay. But I still get the "UNABLE TO LOAD BASIC.SYSTEM" message.

I'm stumped.