Input/Output Error in Disk Utility w/ Failing HD

Hey Apple Community,
I know others probably have asked this question, but I didn't want to spend an hour looking for the correct solution (if one even exists)...thanks for understanding.
Last night my Mid-2009 Macbook Pro failed to boot after a shutdown. I've had a couple things replaced in the past, but upon restarting in Recovery HD mode, it became obvious that the hard drive was failing (I'm assuming, the S.M.A.R.T. designation in Disk Utility said "failing" in red font).  I tried to create an image to an external 1 TB Hard Drive after verifying and a repair attempt, in an attempt to back up my original Hard Drive, but I received the following error message: "Input/Output Error...," and quit the image creation attempt.
I don't have a lot on my computer, about 95% of the original HD was unused. What is important though are prior Graduate School documents, and a few work-related projects. Is there any way to get the information off the HD before it shuts down completely? I am technologically proficient enough to do things on my own, but the local Mac specialists (nearest Apple store is 2 hours away) wanted $150-300 for the work. I can replace the HD myself, so the issue is just getting at least part of the information off the original hard drive onto my external one.
Thank you in advance for any advice/solution/etc you may have! -Matt

Rudiger314 wrote:
Partition Map Scheme: Unformatted
Repair/Verify options are unavailable—buttons grayed out. Erase and Partition options appear to work fine until I press Apply/Erase
1. When Disk Utility starts, select the drive in the sidebar (the line with the size and make/ID).
2. Select the Partition tab, then set the number of partitions from the drop down menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.)
3. Click Options, then choose either GUID (for Intel Macs), or +Apple Partition Map+ (for PPC Macs)
4. For each partition, click on it (it will then be outlined in blue), then supply a name (this is the name that will appear on your desktop and/or Finder sidebar) and size (either by typing in the box or dragging the dividers), and be sure the format type is +Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)+ Don't use any of the other options unless you're sure you need to.
5. When you've got everything the way you want it, click Apply and wait until the process has completed.

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