Thanks. Emerod mouse/rat repellent, is advised by ‘Votre Expert Anti-Nusibles’ and is effective for 6 months, but needs to be sprayed from 30 cms away. Not really practical for each thin cable behind my computer setup.
Think I’d prefer wrapping each cable in a wire mesh. I can tidy up a whole mess of cables and dust at the same time! 
I deterred mice from our larder by using tin foil. Mice hate it because they can’t patter across it silently. Maybe you can also try wrapping some around your new cables? May look a little Christmassy but hey ho ho ho 
Ooops…
11 zero day exploits so far this year is not exactly not “suffering from other weaknesses”.
For the record, I am mainly a Mac user at work.
Sounds good. Have foil, will wrap!
One way I use is to install a completely different operating system over the existing OS/drive without being connected to the wifi or internet, and as an added extra for any wannabe data harvester, set up a duff user account on that new OS, e.g. FreeBSD, or some media streaming OS such as Kodi, or a more esoteric version of a Linux OS. They can them knock themselves out scanning a drive that looks like it has something of interest on it, when in fact, it doesn’t.
Tried that and bounced off and hit me……so still have hard drive lying in garage waiting ti be disposed of. Other suggestions fit for a weakling?
You can take the top off most hard drives quite easily. Most have torx style screws and you can get a set of torx bits quite cheaply. You can also usually take the platters off the spindle and string them up to keep the birds off your fruit like some do with old CDs. They are very reflective. Just watch out for the rare earth magnets, as they are extremely powerful and can do a lot of damage to a finger if you trap it. I did it once.
Electric drill through the top.
I tried the sledge hammer approach. It’s not easy to lift let alone swing accurately. I decided it as too dangerous! The result : It made a small dent then bounced off.
You have to hit it like you mean it. 
If the hammer is hard to lift then it will be difficult to deliver enough force for serious damage.
I repurposed 2 of my old lappy’s, one for the car diagnostic software and the other to drive the CNC cutter. Not the fastest but more than adequate for the job.
I was looking at how to replace a tyre valve stem on a tubeless car wheel rim on YouTube and was informed by the mechanic that I could pause the video by tapping on the computer keyboard space bar. Never knew that, after nearly half a lifetime of tapping away on a computer keyboard!
I think that means I’m not a computer geek. Just saying….!
Neither did I. 
Thank you.
You can also use F to toggle between full screen and normal sized window too, which comes in handy some times.
Edit: oh, and I also use the cursor keys to jump backwards and forwards if needed too (handy for repeating something I missed or to skip if they have sponsorship deals about something I’m not interested in)
Bench vice and a metre long section of steel tube to give you more leverage?
Got a log splitter?
Blimey! It works! Thanks…
I pumped up the tyres of my years long neglected 1973 Rover Coupé and found that one tyre wouldn’t inflate – valve is broke. Probably need a new tyre as well as a valve. Speedy in town is not interested so will try to fix a new valve to a spare wheel rim I have, search the internet for a matching tyre, and get Speedy to attach it to the rim, which they said they’d do.
Don’t know what a log splitter is, unless you mean an axe which I have used in the past to to split logs down the middle. I don’t have a bench vice or a long steel tube. But quite like the idea of fixing the valve to my extra tireless 6th rim. Looks relatively easy. My worry is finding the right valve, but they are cheap and no doubt I’ll find something that matches the original valves.
Please take care when smashing because something could splinter off and fly back towards you. Goggles would protect your eyes but sharp bits of flying plastic or metal could do considerable damage to human skin and flesh.
I’d get a friendly farmer to run his tractor over it a few times. Often, showing a man your dilemma will result in most helpful solutions, and maybe take care of the job entirely! 
Why didnt you get the mechanic to do it for you, he surely has the kit and the knowledge to do it. Unless you have a means of breaking the bead and a means of pulling the valve holder through the rim (from the inside) I wouldnt do it.
That’s unlikely to help as tractor tyres spread the force over a large area and are typically run at a lower pressure than the average car.
If you know someone with a decommissioned military tracked vehicle such as a tank then you may have more luck - for best results jam the hard drive between a wheel and the inside surface of the track 