BBC Micro 5.25" floppy disk drive

[dgreen]

Hi.
I'm hoping this post will be accepted on here as it refers to ancient tech.
I have a BBC Micro model B computer , bought in 1983. I recently got it out of the attic hoping to show my kids the software on the 5.25" floppy disks which included a project I wrote for my Computer science exam in 1986.
Unfortunately I had difficulty reading the disks.
I cleaned one with water and a cotton bud and I also attempted to clean the head on the drive itself.
Unfortunately I damaged the head and the drive is now dysfunctional.
I looked on eBay for a drive but they're not cheap and before I purchase one I thought it might be a good idea to have the disks checked first , in case they are dead too.

Can anyone suggest a way of doing this , perhaps transferring the data onto a different media or somewhere who could test them for me .
Thanks

[Lisa_maree]

Hi

Unfortunately the BBC used 720k floppy disk drives which are no longer made. If you are in the UK, you could get them copied at the British computer museum which is in  Bletchley Park. If in New Zealand I have 5 1/4 " 720 k floppy drives and a going BBC. Once they are copied to a usb drive you can run Beeb emulator on a PC and then not use the BBC. most of the old BBC software is available for download from sites like here http://www.bbcmicro.co.uk/

The drive you have was probably rusty on the head rails or just dry a little sewing machine oil or Vaseline on the rails works wonders. Also are the floppy disks turning freely in the sleeve if not they may have dust or mold binding the disk. Then if you have new sleeves you can take the media out and put it in a new sleeve. I would inspect the media  and dust off with a can of air and a very soft brush, only as a last resort wash it.

[dgreen]

Hi.
Thanks for the reply.
I'm in the UK so I'll try the museum option. Thank you for that.
Ideally I wanted to get the BBC computer running with the floppy drive connected , just as it was 35 years ago , but alas this is now looking a simple pipe dream.

[Lisa_maree]

There are floppy disk emulators for the bbc which plug in to the floppy port, they even have sound tracks which give the sound of a floppy booting they are so cool. They have one at the computer museum with all the BBC software loaded. Don't throw the old drive out you could use the case and put a usb floppy drive in behind the front.
Also please don't leave the BBC plugged in and switched on when you are not with it, the power supply is likely to start smoking with dried out capacitors.