Disk Utility - Input/Output error when creating disk image

Hello!
A few days ago I was unable to turn on my Macbook Pro, and was stuck on the white screen. I've been searching around quite a lot on this forum, and before I try fixing anything, I REALLY need to back-up my files! I just bought a 2TB hard-drive, which I have partitioned to GUID and Mac OS Extended (Journaled), (it perfectly works on another Mac).
I now want to attempt to create an image of my harddrive (Macintosh HD) onto my external drive (which is empty). I've tried doing this both in 'read-only' and in 'compressed', but about halfway through, I receive a message saying "Unable to create 04/2014 backup.dmg (Input/Output) error".
I saw on another similar post that I might want to install DiskDrill or DataRescue. I'm fairly sure this is impossible for me to do, since my screen is completely white, and I'm unable to access my desktop.
I can only access Disk Utility through pressing command+R when starting my computer. Hence, I need to successfully back up my files through Disk Utility...
I'm aware that my HD may be corrupted since this is happening, but there must be a way for me to put an image on my external HD?? A few days ago, when I clicked on Repair Disk it said "Impossible to repair: invalid node structure". But now, it says that "Macintosh HD appears to be OK". I have no idea what's changed... And I can still not start my computer past the white screen...
I'm very bad with IT and computers, and have extensively tried to fix this on my own, but I'm now stuck here, with this "input/output error"...!
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
PS: I do not have Applecare, this is an old computer from 2009.

Thanks for your answer.
Yes, I thought that might be the case - but I'd taken my Mac and Logic disks to a Genius bar, and the 'Genius' had said he'd fixed the issue. I just wish he'd explained what he did and why he didn't replace the faulty disk(s)!
But is there any way around having the claim a disk, now I'm living abroad and my 'warrantee' has run out? It's going to be a pain in the fundament trying to claim a replacement set.

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