Detection and mitigation of disk failures

1. A method of monitoring a disk device as part of an operating system comprising:

polling the disk device periodically for events;

analyzing the events in the result of polling the disk device;

determining whether the events in the results of the polling indicate a disk failure is predicted;

if the determination is false, waiting a predetermined period of time and repeating the method;

if the determination is true, triggering a diagnostic utility and passing the events to the diagnostic utility,

wherein the diagnostic utility comprises:

entering in a log, for newly predicted failures, an entry about the predicted failure;

determining, for each entry on the log, whether the entry is stale, wherein an entry is stale if (a) the disk to which the entry pertains is no longer present or (b) failure is no longer predicted for the disk to which the entry pertains;

removing stale entries from the log; and

forwarding the failure on to a system wide resolver.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the system wide resolver comprises:

scheduling a per-session user resolver user experience to warn about failure if any bad disks are present on the system.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein per-session user resolver user experience comprises:

determining whether the bad disk is on the system;

if the bad disk is on the system:

walking an administrator through backup procedure;

providing instructions for replacing the bad disk;

providing instructions for restoring data;

warning users not to save data to the bad disk;

if the bad disk is not on the system, exit the method.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising alerting an administrator about a bad disk.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises logging data on bad disk for further analysis.

6. A computer readable storage medium having computer executable instructions for performing steps of a method of monitoring a disk device as part of an operating system comprising:

computer executable instructions for polling the disk device periodically for events;

computer executable instructions for analyzing the events in the result of polling the disk device;

computer executable instructions for determining whether the events in the results of the polling indicate a disk failure is predicted;

if the determination is false, computer executable instructions for waiting a predetermined period of time and repeating the method;

if the determination is true, computer executable instructions for triggering a diagnostic utility and passing the events to the diagnostic utility,

wherein the diagnostic utility comprises:

computer executable instructions for entering in a log, for newly predicted failures, an entry about the predicted failure;

computer executable instructions for determining, for each entry on the log, whether the entry is stale, wherein an entry is stale if (a) the disk to which the entry pertains is no longer present or (b) failure is no longer predicted for the disk to which the entry pertains;

computer executable instructions for removing stale entries from the log; and

computer executable instructions for forwarding the failure on to a system wide resolver.

7. The computer readable storage medium of claim 6 , wherein the system wide resolver comprises:

computer executable instructions for scheduling a per-session user resolver user experience to warn about failure if any bad disks are present on the system.

8. The computer readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein per-session user resolver user experience comprises:

computer executable instructions for determining whether the bad disk is on the system, comprising:

if the bad disk is on the system:

computer executable instructions for walking an administrator through backup procedure;

computer executable instructions for providing instructions for replacing the bad disk;

computer executable instructions for providing instructions for restoring data;

computer executable instructions for warning users not to save data to the bad disk; and

if the bad disk is not on the system, computer executable instructions for exiting the method.

9. The computer readable storage medium of claim 6 , further comprising computer executable instructions for alerting an administrator about a bad disk.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 6 , wherein the method further comprises computer executable instructions for logging data on bad disk for further analysis.

11. A computing apparatus, comprising:

a display unit that is capable of generating video images;

an input device;

a processing apparatus operatively coupled to said display unit and said input device, said processing apparatus comprising a processor and a memory operatively coupled to said processor,

a disk drive connected to the processor;

a network interface connected to a network and to the processing apparatus;

said processing apparatus being programmed to execute a method of monitoring a disk device as part of an operating system comprising:

polling the disk device periodically for events;

analyzing the events in the result of polling the disk device;

determining whether the events in the results of the polling indicate a disk failure is predicted;

if the determination is false, waiting a predetermined period of time and repeating the method;

if the determination is true, triggering a diagnostic utility and passing the events to the diagnostic utility,

wherein the diagnostic utility comprises:

entering in a log, for newly predicted failures, an entry about the predicted failure;

determining, for each entry on the log, whether the entry is stale, wherein an entry is stale if (a) the disk to which the entry pertains is no longer present or (b) failure is no longer predicted for the disk to which the entry pertains;

removing stale entries from the log; and

forwarding the failure on to a system wide resolver.

12. The computing apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the system wide resolver comprises scheduling a per-session user resolver user experience to warn about failure if any bad disks are present on the system.

13. The computing apparatus of claim 12 , wherein per-session user resolver user experience comprises:

determining whether the bad disk is on the system;

if the bad disk is on the system:

walking an administrator through backup procedure;

providing instructions for replacing the bad disk;

providing instructions for restoring data;

warning users not to save data to the bad disk;

if the bad disk is not on the system, exit the method.

14. The computing apparatus of claim 11 , further comprising alerting an administrator about a bad disk.

15. The computing apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the method further comprises logging data on bad disk for further analysis.