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It's on the tip of my tongue.

Example: "Replacing the hard drive of this computer would be [idiom]. It's going to fail completely soon enough."

Cheezey
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    "lost cause" and "moot point" are the first things that come to mind. – KnightHawk Dec 30 '14 at 17:55
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    "Throwing good money after bad", or "a lost cause" – Gus Dec 30 '14 at 17:55
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    flogging/beating a dead horse ? – ermanen Dec 30 '14 at 17:59
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    "Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic". – Digital Chris Dec 30 '14 at 17:59
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    a waste of time [and money]. – Jim Dec 30 '14 at 18:00
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    @JosephNeathawk "lost cause" seems right, "moot point" is usually applied to points in an argument, not actions. – Barmar Dec 30 '14 at 18:01
  • grasping/clutching at straws? – ermanen Dec 30 '14 at 18:13
  • "pointless"? "sub-optimal"? – Hellion Dec 30 '14 at 18:16
  • @Barmar, true, but I chose to include "moot point" anyway because some people might prefer to use it as a matter of taste. And we all know that arguing taste is a lost cause. – KnightHawk Dec 30 '14 at 18:34
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    In terms of idioms, "good money after bad" is probably the best/closest, if any real effort/expense is going into attempts to save the "something". "Beating a dead horse" sorta works, but sometimes the intent is unclear as to whether it means trying to save something or further condemn it. "Lost cause" doesn't imply any ongoing effort in either direction, and is also sufficiently self-defining as to hardly qualify as an idiom. – Hot Licks Dec 30 '14 at 19:13
  • @HotLicks "beating a dead" horse is usually about doing something repeatedly after it has become irrelevant or uninteresting, typically repeating an argument. – Barmar Dec 30 '14 at 21:07
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    @JosephNeathawk "moot point" means something different, though. – smci Dec 30 '14 at 21:23
  • ... "polishing a road apple". Hmm... not very common. – jxh Dec 30 '14 at 21:47
  • "More trouble than it's worth" – Tetsujin Dec 31 '14 at 20:17
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    "Windows update" – seo Dec 31 '14 at 20:18
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    "It's... DEAD, Jim!" – Carl Witthoft Dec 31 '14 at 21:04
  • @DigitalChris That is a good idiom, but slightly more specific. It refers to specifically trying to fix minor issues in something not worth saving. This would be more like "trying to prevent the Titanic from sinking" - not quite the same. ;) – neminem Jan 01 '15 at 00:20
  • Galvanizing the corpse? – Vi0 Jan 02 '15 at 02:23
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    I don't think the title and the example match. The computer isn't beyond saving. You can save it by replacing the hard drive. It's just that doing so would be pointless because it would then fail soon after anyway. This is making it hard to vote. Some of the answers match the title, some match the example. – DCShannon Jan 02 '15 at 16:24
  • @DCShannon I meant that the rest of the computer would fail soon enough. I should have thought of a better example, and I definitely should have worded it better knowing I'm among English geeks :) – Cheezey Jan 03 '15 at 00:39
  • Shoveling shit against the tide. – Jack O'Flaherty Nov 25 '21 at 13:12

17 Answers17

44

Consider 'futile' or '... an exercise in futility.'

IconDaemon
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"lost cause"

as @Joseph-Neathawk wrote.

or just simply "doomed" (which is just an adjective not an idiom)

smci
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"Grasping at straws" is probably the best I can think of but I think it is a weak phrase.

Close

  1. A fool's errand
  2. Herding cats
  3. A Sisyphean task
  4. A Pyrrhic victory (if you accomplish the immediate task)
  5. To win the battle but lose the war

Imperfect

  1. Tilting at windmills, or battling windmills
  2. Banging your head on the wall
  3. Bailing out a barge with a bucket
  4. Biting off more than you can chew (more about the aptitude of the actor than the futility of the task)
hunterhogan
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12

From a different perspective

"Replacing the hard drive of this computer would be pointless. It's going to fail completely soon enough"

hfatahi
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10

In the computer trade the idiom for this is polishing a turd:-

you can't polish a turd

1.(vulgar) Something inherently bad cannot be improved. [Wiktionary]

although I think this reference slightly misses the point, which is, that you can polish a turd, but after you have finished polishing it, it remains a turd.

Brian Hooper
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    Dunno how to break it to you, sonny (and get offa my lawn), but 'polishing a turd' is much older than computers -- http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/94871/phrase-which-describes-falsely-improving-something . – Carl Witthoft Dec 31 '14 at 21:09
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    Also the Mythbusters demonstrated that you can, in fact, polish a turd. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiJ9fy1qSFI – Doug McClean Jan 01 '15 at 18:03
5

Short and sweet and it's an idiom: not worth while. When doing something that will not save time nor money in the long run, we can say

Replacing the hard drive is not worth while

Related is the following 17th century phrase, not worth the candle and its longer version the game's not worth the candle. Meaning that the task at hand does not even merit the cost of lighting a candle.

Replacing the hard drive is not worth the candle. It's going to fail completely soon enough.

Mari-Lou A
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  • Surely the sense is that the potential winnings from the game wouldn't cover the cost of the candle. – Dominic Cronin Jan 01 '15 at 08:35
  • @DominicCronin that may be the meaning of the phrase as you understand it, but it is not strictly connected to winnings. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/the-game%27s-not-worth-the-candle. See also the Phrase Finder link which I posted in my answer. Happy New Year BTW! – Mari-Lou A Jan 01 '15 at 10:39
  • Ok. The definition you reference uses the phrase "potential advantages". I don't see how that contradicts what I said. – Dominic Cronin Jan 01 '15 at 10:49
  • @DominicCronin The potential advantage is the computer continuing to work until it fails completely. – DCShannon Jan 02 '15 at 16:22
5

One of interest that sprang to my mind:

"Like polishing brass on the Titanic."

Which I gather was popularized by author Chuck Palahniuk in Fight Club, but exemplifies what might normally be a worthwhile act overshadowed by the big picture.

Abernasty
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closing/shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted

trying to stop something bad happening when it has already happened and the situation cannot be changed Improving security after a major theft would seem to be a bit like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.

From TFD.

Actually not an idiom, but a simile. There must be other expressions as well.

Jim Reynolds
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    This usually refers to something that was preventable, but you failed to do so, and now it's too late. – Barmar Dec 30 '14 at 19:33
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    I agree with Barmar; this idiom is about a bad thing that happened in the past (the horse has bolted), while the question is about a bad thing that going to happen in the future (the hard drive's going to fail completely soon enough). –  Dec 30 '14 at 19:55
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    That's not a simile; it's a metaphor. – kettlecrab Dec 30 '14 at 22:58
  • @Barmar Oh, right. Somehow I got that the problem was that the drive had not been fixed soon enough. It is a simile as used in the example sentence above (...is a bit like....). If we said Improving security is* closing the door....*, it would be a metaphor. – Jim Reynolds Dec 31 '14 at 02:48
4

What about flogging a dead horse? Not the usual context for the idiom, but it seems to fit well enough.

Tim Lymington
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4

"fight a losing battle" may work here.

to try hard to do something when there is no chance that you will succeed (usually in continuous tenses)

Example (from above link):

We try our best to cope with the workload but we're fighting a losing battle.

Danield
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"Too little, too late."

"A day late and a dollar short."

"Like spitting in the wind."

"A wasted effort."

Jasper
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the juice isn't worth the squeeze.

programmer one
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  • I see the relationship, but I think the meaning here is different: It suggests producing something that is not valuable enough or good enough to justify the effort in making it. But it's quite a particular use of the idea to communicate not being valuable or good enough at saving something or preventing loss or ruin. – Jim Reynolds Dec 30 '14 at 19:25
1

If you want to say "beyond saving", then say just that. It's a perfectly good way to express your meaning. As others have noted, your missing blank can perhaps be filled with pointless or futile.

Dominic Cronin
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"Like putting lipstick on a pig"

BlueWhale
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0

The first that springs to mind is:

You can't bail faster than the leaks

This relates directly, because it deals with the save-ability of the thing, rather than more-abstract futility. "spitting into the wind" is about futility, or worthlessness. Saving / salvation, is another matter.

I think I've also heard an expression like

"alms for thieves"

... or similar, but I don't recall where – so I'm not sure that it can be as reasonably applicable. The 'thief' here is 'not possible to save' with charity, because they are at odds with the principal dynamics of the situation. That may not always be true to the measure of whether somethings is "beyond saving."

New Alexandria
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0

My first thought was "a fruitless attempt"

Example: "Replacing the hard drive of this computer would be fruitless. It's going to fail soon anyway."

Michael Durrant
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as useless as a fence around a cemetary.

andrew wilkinson
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  • Why is a fence around a cemetery useless? In my experience, most cemeteries seem to be surrounded by something like a fence or wall. – David Richerby Jan 02 '15 at 00:04