Disk Failure On Ubuntu 10.10

I guess you have been using this hard drive for a long time? Every hard disk will be old some day. So maybe you should buy a new one. On all accounts, this is not a bug etc. in Ubuntu. Ubuntu only detected the problem using the S.M.A.R.T. data on your hard disk.

But before buying a new hard drive, consider this:
- First, you should check if you get the same S.M.A.R.T. parameters repeatedly: There should be a button to "perform a self test" (if you don't find it, just ask). The button will cause the system to refresh the data and maybe the same happens to you that happened to me once: The problem just disappears... ;)
- "While several S.M.A.R.T. parameters have an impact on failure probability, a large fraction of failed drives do not produce predictive S.M.A.R.T. parameters. S.M.A.R.T. parameters alone may not be useful for predicting individual drive failures." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_drive#Disk_failures_and_their_metrics)

Thanks for answering my question. But, when I clicked on "Run a self test" It laggs a little bit and then in the side that says "Self Test:" It just says "Unknown" and stops running the self test.
Maybe I need to buy a new one... OR do you know if this ruins the performance on my computer or will just stop working?

You could simply lost all your data.
If your data are valueless, no problem...else start to make periodic backup or buy a new disk.