Macbook doesn't get past boot screen.

My friend gave me her MacBook Air to look at. I turn it on and there is an Apple logo, a wheel spinning and and progress bar. The progress bar gets to about 25% and then it turns off.
I've now gone into the utility tool using the command key on start up and tried verifying the disk and then repairing it. The outcome of the 'verify disk' is "Error: The disk needs to be repaired. Click Repair Disk" and the outcome of 'repair disk' is "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"
From this I have come to the conclusion that the hard-drive is corrupted somehow (probably wrong, don't hurt me). I'm terrible with macs, how do I make a backup of files (photos, music, etc.) and fix this issue.
Thanks in advance.

OS X v10.6- Gray progress bar appears under Apple logo during startup

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