Macbook hard drive fail.

[sean800]

I opened my Macbook a couple hours ago, and everything seemed fine, I typed in my password and it said "Checking password...", which normally only takes a second or two, but this went on.. I got worried after a couple minutes and held down the power button. When i turned it on, the screen was white with no apple logo. I waited a while, and looked up the problem, as it turns out it's probably a hard drive failure. I booted from the install disk and sure enough, the macintosh HD dosen't show up. In disk utility, it is there but grayed out. Unfortunately, it takes quite a while, at least 4-5 minutes, to boot into the install disk, and clicking on macintosh HD and generally trying to do much of anything in the install disk, like check the system info for the HD, causes the system to freeze up and I have to power it off. This is making it hard to test, but I was able to get it to repair disk once, and after waiting for a while it told me that it couldn't repair the disk, and to format it. I don't want to lose my files at all, but there was nothing there that would be the end of the world. I'm pretty sure I could get my iTunes music off my iPhone, right?

Anyway, do you have any suggestions, and do you think they could do anything if I take it to apple?

Should I just try to reinstall the OS?
I'd like it working ASAP, but wouldn't want to ruin any chance that it could work again without any data loss.

It's a late 2009 Macbook, I believe I am still under Applecare.

 

[eawmp1]

If you are covered under AppleCare, then this is what you bought it for.
Don't expect data recovery from Apple, however. This is why an off-machine backup is necessary.

 

[sean800]

If you are covered under AppleCare, then this is what you bought it for.
Don't expect data recovery from Apple, however. This is why an off-machine backup is necessary.

I think I'm still under the standard 1 year warranty, but the nearest apple store isn't close, so it may be a while before I can make the trip, plus I'll probably have to send it away. So there is no chance of getting the data back with apple? If that's the case, I'll try installing fresh. It probably won't work, but if it does it would save a big hassle.