Drive failure

Hi everyone
I have a drive failure on iMac desktop and after reading around I think I feel confident to change the HD myself from1tb to 2tb.
My question is this. What next?
I take it I need boot disks that I stick in the DVD drive and it all sorts it's self out from there as it will be a completely blank hard drive.
Also, I can't find my disks. If I have a serial number to go with it are these easy or cheap to come by?
Is there any questions I need to be asking or I haven't thought of? I'm praying I'll be able to remove the HD and at the least get the pictures off, everything else I know I could get back.

I'm not sure what sort of information is needed for this type of question so I got this from my super slow iMac

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac11,2
Processor Name: Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 3.6 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Processor Interconnect Speed: 6.4 GT/s
Boot ROM Version: IM112.0057.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.64f5



I've obviously missed some info off. What is the Hardware UUID:
I assume it means Unique User ID, but what is that.

Thanks for any input guys

 

rkaufmann87 hah, I give all the other information but that *facepalm* It is Version 10.6.8
So if I stick a new 2tb HD in the computer it'll just be a case of installing the boot disks from Applecare.
I know I have t find, retrieve and put all my apps back on,but such is life I guess I'll have to suck that one up.

 

Cheers for that. I've just been and ordered the disks (£19, not an ace price but it could be worse I guess) Now I need to look for the 2tb HD I know the guide I am following says it's a 3.5" Sata (or something like that)

Now my only hopes I'll be able to get the pictures off the hard drive once it is out. Then I will learn to backup a little more often (little more often means more than never!)

 

That is an impressive set up. I think the time capsule will be my long term investment. I have just ordered the 3 tb seagate drive and am now waiting for the boot disks to come from apple. I took the HD out of the intel iMac with very little fuss, I was very impressed with how easy it was.
The strange thing is, when I placed the HD in my all in one HD dock it communicates perfectly with my PC (with the right software) and I am now transferring the 103gb photographs off with ease (4 hours ease) it makes me wonder if there really is a drive failure. Don't get me wrong though, I'm not complaining as I'm upgrading my HD to 3tb, I'm just curious to how a failing HD can work so well out of the mac.