It should leave the drive untouched. I assume you'll want to read SMART data from the drive? If so, S.M.A.R.T. Monitoring Tools is available in both Linux and Windows flavors. Also, note there are a few system test & recovery flavors of Linux out there.
Edit: it seems the S300 is easy to open up. Maybe you could release/reseat the memory, and give the HD a wiggle.