How can i back up my computer if it wont turn on?

i need to back up my hard drive so i dont loose everything because i have to send it to apple to get the hard drive replaced. yesterday when i was going to turn it on it would not go further than the start up screen, what do i do???? I have already contacted technical support and they told me to back up my hard drive then send it to them for a replacement hard drive.
Macbook

Before you send it in, have you tried booting the system from the install disk that came with your MacBook and running a disk repair from Disk Utility (it will be launchable from the menu)? If no errors appear, then try doing an Archive and Install reinstallation of Mac OS X.
If the problem is indeed a defective hard drive, then it may not be possible to get a good backup of your files as they may already be lost or damaged. You really want to be making backups before you have drive problems. If you have access to an external Firewire hard drive, though, you can install Mac OS X on it, boot from that, and see if you can access the internal hard drive to back up your files (I would not depend on the Apple repair depot to make your backup for you unless you have no other choice). A utility like Prosoft Engineering's Data Rescue might help if you can get to the hard drive by booting from an external drive.
Good luck.

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azwanelias wrote:
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How can i back up my computer if it wont turn on?

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