DIY Life

You're standing there staring at the ruins of your hard drive. What used to be a fully-functional piece of technological goodness is now, thanks to that bowl of applesauce your toddler just dumped in there, a very expensive paperweight.

You can take it in to some data-retrieval experts, of course, but if you find that the thing is truly irretrievable, all is not lost! Apartment Therapy's tech site, Unpluggd, has a simple way to put your old friend to new use.

Remove the hard drive, scoop out its guts, pop off the casing. Attach a couple of hinges on one side, and you now have a storage compartment... the secret book for the 21st Century!