Smart and Simpleis a free, simple command line utility to read back the SMART attributes from a HDD while in service. It’s a single 31kb executable which can be carried with you on a floppy disk, giving you a quick indication of the health of any disk drive without the burden of installing a sizeable application.

MS Windows does not monitor HDDs for failures. BIOS can detect a failure, but only when a threshold is exceeded on the drive. Third party applications exist to periodically monitor the drive and predict the failure date, however these applications cost money and are required to be installed on the computer.

http://www.beyondlogic.org/solutions/smart/smart.htm