Filesystem maintenance

[Jeff]

Greetings.
I am running an Ubuntu Linux 7.04 server (ran a 6.06, then 6.10, and now 
the 7.04).  The server works great, with one exception.

I have heard about Linux stability.  However, as the server runs 24/7 
and never needs rebooting, after a while, the hard drive develops 
problems.  This past spring, I let the thing run without any rebooting 
or maintenance, and after about 4 months ended up with a read-only file 
system, had to run FSCK and had major problems once the drive finally 
came back to usability.  Since then, I have tried to run FSCK about once 
every week or two.

I have some experience with Linux, but not extensive.  Here are my 
questions.

1. Is FSCK the way to keep the disk drive running well?

2. Is it necessary to unmount the file system every so often to run it, 
or is there another way?

3. Are there other programs or suggestions for keeping the file system 
running?  Seems a pain to take the server down weekly to do this 
maintenance. 

Thanks in advance for any wisdom that you can provide.
Jeff