How to backup my files from a crashed 10.6.8 Mac?

Question

Need help with my 10.6.8 Mac! It all started when I accidently kicked my power strip 2 days ago which turned the computer off. I have done this a million times before in the 3 years I have owned the computer, but it has never done this: when I start up the computer it completely freezes up after 30 secs -2 minutes. You can move the mouse around, but the spinning wheel appears and you can’t switch apps, force quit anything, etc.
This made me remember that my computer has one of the Seagate 1TB hard drives used certain iMac systems may fail (I got an email about it from apple). I have 1 month left to replace the hard drive under their warranty program, so this seemed like a good time to replace it.
The problem is, I need to somehow back up my files before I do take it in be replaced. I can’t use time machine normally because the computer freezes when I start it. So I decided to see if I could try and use the disk utility from the start up disk to fix the freezing problem in the meantime so I can back up my files normally. I put in the install disk, started it up, held C, and got the installation page. Here’s where I think I really f-d up though: after choosing the language, and hitting continue, I accidently prompted the start of it reinstalling the hard drive (I didn’t realize the utility option was at the top of the page and was supposed to choose it from there). I immediately used the quit option from the drag down menus at the top, which brought up a message saying something like you might not be able to restart your computer if you do this, but I did it anyway because I didn’t want to lose all my data. So now when I do open the disk utility and click on my hard drive it is red and says “take into apple representative” or something and when I try and click verify disk or whatever. So I tried clicking on the hard drive that is listed right below it (I think it said “Mac Hard drive,” and the main one above it at the top of the list is ”1 TB ST3” with a bunch of numbers after) and clicked verify disk,, which showed the following:
Verifying volume “Macintosh HD”
Checking Journaled HFS Plus Volume.
Checking catalog file.
(then in red writing)
invalid node structure
The volume Macintosh HD could not be verified completely.
Error: This disk needs to be repaired. Click Repair Disk.
So I clicked repair disk and it says
(in black)
Verify and Repair volume “disk0s2”
Volume Repair complete.
Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.
(then in red writing)
Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
Next I tried plugging in my external hard drive and following the instructions from here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1553 to create a “new image” to back up to. However when I tried to make the new image it gives me an error about unable to create invalid argument.
Basically my question is, is there any way for me back up the files from my computer?!?

Answer 1

Start up using your install disc and with your external drive connected. After selecting your language go to the Utilities menu and select Disk Utility, (don't make the same mistake again) erase and format your EXTERNAL hard drive, format as Mac OS Extended Journaled and quit Disk Utility. Go back to the installer screen and click continue, this time select to install OS X onthe EXTERNAL drive and install. When the installer is done restart this time holding down the OPTION key to get to the boot panel where you will select the external hard drive as your start up volume. When you are restarted choose to run either set up assistant or migration assistant and attempt to migrate your files and Apps from the damaged drive. Keep your fingers crossed that you haven't totally hosed the internal drive. Let us know how that goes.