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Beloved author Terry Pratchett's dying wish to steamroll his hard drive fulfilled

Many people can probably relate to this.

Brian Koerber

on August 30, 2017

There are plenty of people out there who would prefer their hard drive be destroyed by a steamroller after their death. Late author Terry Pratchett wished the same, but probably for different reasons than most.

Pratchett sadly passed away in 2015 at the age of 66, leaving behind a hard drive, allegedly filled with 10 incomplete novels. But Pratchett had a plan for his unfinished works -- destroy them with a steamroller.

Unfinished works from artists, musicians, and authors get reworked and released all the time, so it's no surprise that Pratchett would want his unfinished stories to never be publicly released.

Longtime assistant Rob Wilkins tweeted photos of Pratchett's hard drive to their shared account on Friday.

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"About to fulfill my obligation to Terry," Wilkins wrote with a photo of a hard drive in front of an antique steamroller at the Great Dorset Steam Fair. The name of the steam roller, according to the Guardian, is Lord Jericho and was manufactured by John Fowler & Co.

Later he tweeted a photo of the crushed drive, and announced it will be on display at the Salisbury Museum in in an exhibition called HisWorld, which will run from September to January.

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Following his death, longtime friend and author Neil Gaiman revealed Pratchett's wishes to UK publication The Times.

"Whatever he was working on at the time of his death to be taken out along with his computers, to be put in the middle of a road and for a steamroller to steamroll over them all," Gaiman told The Times.