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I found the following sentence:

The hard drive is destroyed in a manner that does not allow it to be rebuilt.

I would like to know whether it can be rewritten as follows:

The hard drive is destroyed in such a manner as not to allow it to be rebuilt.

In fact, when I googled the phrase "in such a manner as not to allow", only some results were found. Then, I googled the phrase "in a manner that does not allow", much more results were found. So, I am afraid whether the phrase "in such a manner as not to allow" sounds strange to natives.

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    It's a little odd. It would sound better if you used to not rather than not to. But while I think the first sentence sounds more natural, there's nothing actually wrong with the second.
    – Jason Bassford
    Commented Jan 14, 2019 at 7:59
  • There is no reason to make the original verbose in such a manner as you have done. Why are you even going in that direction? What do you find wrong with the original? Why do you feel the need for such?
    – TimR
    Commented Jan 14, 2019 at 10:30
  • I first came up with the phrase "in such a manner as to do". I think Non-native English speakers are more familiar with "in such a manner as to" than "in a manner that does" when creating this type of sentence.
    – rama9
    Commented Jan 14, 2019 at 12:33
  • If that is the case, I would venture to say that it is so because the texts they're learning from may be repeating exercises developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, just as English and American poetry anthologies have often repeated rather slavishly the choices made by editors a century or more earlier. Also, I see the telltale signs of exercises on the passive when focus would be better placed on modal verbs.
    – TimR
    Commented Jan 14, 2019 at 12:56
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    when you use google, the more words you use, the less hits you will get: when you get to more than four or five words, the results probably are not statistically significant. The two examples you searched for are eight and seven words respectively: your results may simply be reflect the fact that the second phrase is shorter.
    – JavaLatte
    Commented Jan 14, 2019 at 14:56

2 Answers 2

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The phrases "a manner that does not allow. . ." and "such a manner as not to allow. . ." have different meanings.  The first uses an indicative relative clause to identify the manner.  This clause represents something like result or consequence.  The second identifies the manner with an attributive infinitive phrase.  This phrasing commonly represents something like intent or purpose. 

Intent is not as strong a statement as result.  What we want to do and what we accomplish may be two different things. 

The idea that the drive cannot be rebuilt could represent either a hope or a fact.  In the original statement, it is presented as a fact.  In your paraphrasing, it could be interpreted merely as a hope. 

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If you wanted to use such in that sentence:

The hard drive is destroyed such that it cannot be rebuilt.

There such = "in such a manner" and such that = "in such a manner as"

P.S. But note the difference in the as-clause and the that-clause. In the that-clause the subject of the main clause can be repeated:

... hard drive is destroyed ... such that it cannot be rebuilt

whereas with the as-clause there is no repetition of subject and the clause is infinitival:

... hard drive is destroyed ... in such a manner as not to allow it to be rebuilt

... hard drive is destroyed ... in such a manner as to make rebuilding it impossible

... hard drive is destroyed ... in such a manner as to prevent it from being rebuilt

In practical terms the hard drive is destroyed and cannot be rebuilt in all of those formulations, so if your only concern is that the formulations must ultimately express the same underlying fact, they do indeed.

If your concern is to express that idea as succinctly as possible, I would recommend using the modal verb: so that|such that it cannot be rebuilt.

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