Called to support a brand new client who was not getting the response they needed from their current support company.  Reception PC (which acts as a file server for other network computers) takes an hour to start - basically unusable even then.  Client unable to install our remote diagnostic utility.  Hard drive failing was near the top of a short list of possible causes.

Had a look at the 18 month old machine - a Dell business slim desktop (SFF not USDT size).  Went into BIOS.  Once again, I find that SMART is deliberately disabled by the computer manufacturer.  Have seen this before from Dell - many times in the last 4 years - on machines clients have purchased themselves.

Ran the onboard diagnostics and these confirmed a faulty hard drive.

Checked 3 identical machines in the office - SMART also turned off on these machines.  Explained this to the company owner.

The only conclusion I have been able to come to in the past, and reinforced again today, is that Dell would rather their clients lose data than get warnings about a failing hard drive during the warranty period.  If the warnings were enabled, clients might lodge a warranty claim which costs Dell money.  With the alerts turned off, they are likely hoping that the drive may be indicating that it is about to fail (but the BIOS is not listening) but does not actually fail until the machine is out of warranty, at which time they could charge for the repair.  Unfortunately for the client, the data on their drive is likely to be unrecoverable (and they may not have sufficient backups).

You would need rocks in your head to buy a computer from a company who is going out of their way to create a circumstance in which their clients can lose data.