http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/4913/
While there are many S.M.A.R.T. tools for Windows included in system related products of third parties (e.g. Norton System Doctor) what somewhat raises the awareness of this problem, the only usable product for Linux is smartmontools.
The target group of this are, however, professionals. (This suite contains a command line tool and a daemon.)

Because hard drive failure is a often underestimated and neglected problem until it occurs, the user should be protected the best way without even knowing about it.

Therefore, I suggest to integrate smartmontools into Ubuntu in a smart and user friendly way. Providing a second barrier (besides backups) to hard drive failure.

Of course, the user is to be notified on dangerous situations by graphical means (e.g. a dialogue box, a message on login or in some not easily negligible way). To further ease rescuing the system, the user should be presented a "rescue wizard" allowing for easy bringing one's data to a safe harbour.

[347 votes] Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #4913


]]> en-us Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:00:06 +0000 Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 QAPoll module http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/4913/ Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:23:17 +0000 Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:36:06 +0000 Kinda pointless to have a disk with S.M.A.R.T if its never used.
I really hate when the disk crashes, everyone hates it!]]> Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:13:24 +0000 The first time, the disk died 2 days later.
The second time, the disk died 5 days later.

There is already a GUI for SMART tools:
sudo aptitude install smart-notifier

And you're ready to run.

It's unobtrusive, and will silentely monitor harddisk status.
A popup will show up on potentiel HD problem.

It would be a good idea to install this packaged by default on Ubuntu.]]> Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:29:15 +0000 Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:30:15 +0000 While I think this may be a good idea, it should not be touted as protection.]]> Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:27:57 +0000 Tue, 18 Mar 2008 02:23:19 +0000 Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:44:25 +0000
In South Africa with power load shedding it is critical !]]> Fri, 21 Mar 2008 22:18:33 +0000