[conspire] Looking for some OSS tools...

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Don Marti (dmarti at zgp.org):

> If the drives have SMART support, you can use
> smartmontools.  More info in "Monitoring Hard Disks
> with SMART"
> 
> http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6983

Strong recommendation.  Edward, the advantage of querying the drive with
smartmontools is that all relatively recent hard drives are busy _all
the time_ reporting SMART-protocol information on the state of their
health.  The smartmontools listen in on, and summarise, that
information.

If you want to stress-test Linux-loaded computers to catch weak of
failing parts, you can use the Cerberus Test Control System.  Warning: 
CTCS is a bit geeky, and takes a little study to get the hang of
interpreting its results.  

Some more links that might be handy for you:

http://twiki.iwethey.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/WindowsRescueDisk#Memory_Test_CPU_Test_Disk_Test
"Cerberus FAQ" on http://linuxmafia.com/kb/Hardware/