If I have to erase and re-install......

Will I lose all of my applications during that process? My SL install failed and DU says the disk cannot be repaired, back up files, and erase and re-install the OS.
Do I lose all of my applications when I do this? Illustrator, Photoshop, etc???

Will I lose all of my applications during that process? My SL install failed and DU says the disk cannot be repaired, back up files, and erase and re-install the OS.
A quick note here: you can be sure that the install failed because the disk was damaged, not the other way around. I just want to head off yet another string of "Snow Leopard destroyed my system!" complaints before they get started.
Now, to a solution... when you say Disk Utility can't repair, was that when you were booted from the Snow Leopard disk and running Disk Utility from there? I'm assuming so, but if not, you need to try that... Disk Utility can't repair the current boot drive. If Disk Utility isn't working, you can try [DiskWarrior|http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html] or [TechTool Pro|http://www.micromat.com>. Neither of these are free, unfortunately, but they're both excellent utilities. If DU, DiskWarrior and TechTool Pro can't fix the drive, it's not fixable.
If it turns out not to be fixable, you'll need to erase the hard drive and reinstall everything. If erasing doesn't work, your hard drive has failed and will need to be replaced.
Do I lose all of my applications when I do this? Illustrator, Photoshop, etc???
You will have to reinstall those apps from the original install disks. If you don't have the disks anymore (I'd have to question why not), then you should have a backup that includes those apps and all support files... this is a less-desirable option, since you may not know where all the support files are and may have trouble getting the apps working again.
Also, as was already pointed out, your documents are more important and less replaceable than your applications. Do you have a backup of your documents? If not, you're going to need to think about file recovery before erasing the hard drive. Don't expect to recover everything, though. I don't have experience with Mac file recovery utilities... you never need one if you keep good backups. Google "mac file recovery" for some options.

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