MacBook re-occurring problems.

Good Afternoon MacRumors community!,

I'm having an issue with my machine.

Its a MacBook (13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008), and I am have some problems that keep occurring.

Firstly, the track pad will randomly get stuck (Will not click) and the hard crashed. This was about ~ 1 year ago.

The second time, the hard drive failed again, ~roughly couple 6 months ago.

The third time, the hard drive started to act real slow and stuttered a lot. Since I saw this previously, I knew what to expect so I backed up about a couple hours before the crash. ~roughly 3 months ago.

Now recently, my track pad is again acting up. It will become unstable and I cannot click it. I am sure this problem can easily be remedied, but now the real problem occurs...
My hard drive is stuttering randomly again!

I'm a college student in my last year of engineering. That means a lot of reports, drawings, etc. The next 2 weeks will be hectic and I really need a computer to do my work. (The macbook seems to always fail when exams are coming....)

What should I do? What would you do in my situation?

Additional Info:

This device does not have any water damage, and their is a light scratch below the "directional buttons." (Due to my watch, but it is very light.)

I have not dropped my machine, played football with it, or jumped off a plane with it.

Your suggestion(s) are greatly appreciated! Thank You!

 

According to Activity Monitor, I have 1GB of memory free of 3.75GB total. (When running AutoCAD, Word)

For extra info, I currently have 160/250 GB free for hard drive space.