smartmontools is great
I use this package routinely to get the status and check all of my drives.
However, so far, I have never been able to convince a manufacturer to accept the results as proof of a failure, and have to resort to using their tools to get RMA work done. This usually requires booting with a boot cd if the manufacturer has one, or actually installing the drive in a windows system to use the tools.
Articles like this might help to change their minds.