No choice, need to reinstall OS from scratch, but... Help!

I've been dealing with a disk error that has tripped up every application I've used to correct it. Disk First Aid could nothing. I tried Disk Warrior, but that's taking centuries to run and still won't solve the end problem (according to a DW techie). But before running DW I tried to use Retrospect, but that application won't function either, presumably because of the original disk error. All of this because I can't upgrade to Tiger and because I've been told that though there are no issues now the disk error will eventuallly get me. I don't know what the disk error is but it clearly is causing problems up and down the chain.
Anyway, so I am forced to reinstall Tiger from scratch thus entirely erasing and reformatting my hard drive (which I've been told will solve the problem). But without a Retrospect back up all I can do is drag'n'drop from an external hard drive back onto the Powerbook. But though I've backed up most everything manually I'm sure I'm missing things, plus there's all those settings and preferences (and where is my Safari bookmarks file?).
So, should I do this and go through the pain? Should I take it into a professional and have them do a more thorough backup and reinstall and reset? Should I buy a new Powerbook and just have it copy over everything onto a freshly formatted Tiger machine and sell my old one with a fresh install and reformat on Ebay (no)? Or just stay with Panther until I buy a new one later and live with the risk of an eventual hard drive meltdown?
What to do, what to do??? Thanks.
Also, with Restrospect, what happens with a restore if I've reinstalled a new OS since the backup? Does it do anything with the OS or not?

Your Safari Bookmarks.html file is in the folder ~/Library/Safari.
Good luck.
Tuttle

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