[ Thanks to kiterunner for this link.
]
“GSmartControl is a really useful Linux app to check
the health of your hard disk drive. GSmartControl is basically a
graphical user interface for smartctl, which is a tool for querying
and controlling SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting
Technology) data on modern hard disk drives. Only ATA drives
including both PATA and SATA are supported for now.“GSmartControl Features
* GSmartControl can perform short and long duration self test of
you HDD without any data loss. Self tests are completely safe and
nothing happens to the user data.* Tests can be performed during normal system operation, but may
take longer to complete if the drive is not idle.* Automatically reports and highlights any anomalies and also
allows enabling/disabling SMART.”