If you know someone who’s a bomber pilot in l’Armée de l’air …
Then again, maybe not such a good idea!
Last time I needed to smash something, I put it an old rice sack and then whacked it with a sledgehammer. Worked very well.
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Just take it apart yourself as I suggested. All you need is a few torx screwdrivers, you can get a set in a brico for a few euros. Not only will you avoid the possibility of injury, and all the hassle of ‘decommissioning’ it manually, but the insides of a hard drive are fascinating, you can use some of the bits, and it will definitely be unreadable afterwards. Win-win.
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I agree totally 
This arrived today in my inbox
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I have a Microsoft computer keyboard and wanted to put a tick ✓ in a Word document. You can do it from Word’s menu but is time-consuming. Holding down ALT and tapping out 10003 does the job much more quickly! Or ALT 10004 for a tick 
in Bold.
Just discovered by me, a non-nerd!
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I use this method for the Euro sign €, which I’ve just done on my PC using ALT 0128.
Sadly my laptop doesn’t have the number pad on the right that’s needed to do this… it doesn’t work using the numbers positioned above the letters. In Word I’ve had to set up various convoluted keyboard shortcuts instead 
Alternately, you can combine IT security with physical exercise by taking said drive into your shed and batter it to bits in the manner of a Morris dancing blacksmith.
On my keyboard the euro symbol € = Alt Gr + E
My French AZERTY keyboard has €£$, also English double quotation marks " (why?) and a symbol I don’t know so would be grateful for any explanation - it’s ¨ - two tiny dots that are smaller than full stops and barely visible.
The French language uses diacritics when written
Thanks - so it’s an umlaut?
But I can’t see how one can put it over a letter, only before or after ?
ê ô o ù Try pressing the key with the symbol the letter key these are the choices a e i o u y, if that doesn’t work the alt > key symbol then the letter
Got it! Thanks very much . ôö
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< smug mode on > On my Apple Macintosh (UK) keyboard it’s just Opt+2 < smug mode off >
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Or use Lexibar to insert accents for many languages. Place the chosen language virtual keyboard at the edge of the screen.
No, it’s a tréma, the function isn’t the same as an umlaut. Instead of changing the sound of the vowel, it makes the diphthong into two separate sounds.
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Thanks - thought you might pop up and explain things.
Can you also explain the double quotation mark presence on an AZERTY keyboard - I’m not moaning about it, just curious. It’s very handy not just for direct speech, but also for US style quotations (which I don’t like, but sometimes have to use).
I’ve always used double quotation marks as I’d do in English and never thought about it not being correct, however I’ve seen - being used for direct speech. Which brings us to another question, why modern written English no longer uses diacritics, surely it’d be much easier.
Thöugh- enough öugh oûgh etc
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