There is a bug in Ubuntu that has the potential to kill HDDs very quickly.
I know that *buntu isn't officially supported, but I also know there are a number of people running either servers or desktops running it.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... +bug/59695
This describes a bug where the overly aggressive power management is taking a toll on hard drives. Mostly, this will concern laptops, but there is a mention of desktops also being affected, so I'm going to post it here, as nobody likes a dead machine.
Kev.