Dead hard drive? replace myself?

Hi folks,
My hard drive was making a funny clicking/vibrating noise while spinning for the past 2 months. I have backed up everything, fortunately, to an external HD. Today, the HD seems to have died. When it spins, it makes a worse clicking/grinding sound, and the iBook freezes and becomes unresponsive (except to reboot, and the boot sequence freezes when the HD starts to spin). Currently, I have my backup external firewire HD attached and I'm actually loading OSX.3 onto it now so that perhaps I can boot from it and get access to files.
Now for the hard stuff. I've been quoted by local Apple Store and another Apple local shop $350-$450 for replacement HD and recovery of files. For another few hundred, I could buy a used PBook or iBook on eBay, which is tempting, but my current iBook is fine except for the HD, so it seems. And I see plenty of quite inexpensive replacement 40-80 GB HD's on eBay for less than $100. Questions are two:
- is it reasonable to assume HD is dead, and if so,
- should I buy a replacement and install it myself?
My technical skills: I have installed memory cards into my Lombard PBook, memory into my Dell subnotebook, and on occasion I can use hammer, nails, and drill. I am a doctor, but not a surgeon.
Yes, no, maybe?? Tell me if I'm getting in way over my head.
-- Josh

Hi Joshua,
Does wen you said it freezes, does it actually freeze or do you get the spinning wheel? Can you move the mouse? I would wait a couple of days before thinking about installing a new hard drive. The reason being, we might find that it isn't necessarily a failing hard drive; it could be something else. You might want to look at Mac OS X v10.3 Tutorials - Troubleshooting a Mac that Won't Start and Knowledge Base Document #106464 on Your Mac won't start up in Mac OS X (Mac OS X 10.3.9 or earlier).
You may also want to try reseting the PMU (Knowledge Base Document #14449, which covers Resetting Powerbook and iBook Power Management Unit (PMU)). What does it say next to S.M.A.R.T. status (Checking the S.M.A.R.T. status of your hard disk (Disk Utility 10.5))?
Jon
PS The iFixit guide is a great guide as long as your patient and read it over a couple of times before you begin. Remember it's not a race; if you find yourself getting frustrated, stop, walk away, and come back when you have relaxed.
Mac Mini 1.42Ghz, iPod (All), Airport (Graphite & Express), G4 1.33Ghz iBook, G4 iMac 1Ghz, G3 500Mhz, iBook iMac 233Mhz, eMate, Power Mac 5400 LC, PowerBook 540c, Macintosh 128K, Apple //e, Apple //, and some more...  Mac OS X (10.4.5) Moto Razr, iLife '06, SmartDisk 160Gb, Apple BT Mouse, Sight..

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