Please Help! 10.6.8 Update and subsequent problems

Question

On Friday, 2/10/2012, the Software Update popped up and informed me that new updates were ready to be installed on my MacBook Pro.
I clicked the update button and the updater installed the following updates:
iTunes v10.5.3
Security Update 2012-001 v1.1
MacBook Pro Video Update v1.0
Remote Desktop Client Update v3.5.2
Keynote 5.1.1 v5.1.1
Safari v5.1.2
Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 6 v6.0
Soon after installation Safari started crashing whenever I opened new tabs. I reset Safari and that problem went away.
I also run a Virtual Machine (Windows Vista imported from a Sony Vaio). The virtual machine has never had a problem and I used it on Thursday before the update and it worked fine. However, after the updates, I can no longer use the virtual machine. It has been corrupted. I get a message that says "Unable to Access Hard Drive 1: input/output error."
Then my whole Mac started running slow, especially Safari. In Safari, pages are slow to load and I get the spinning color wheel (or "beach ball," as I have heard it referred to) when I'm on any web page. Pages take long to load. After they load, I still get the spinning color wheel consistently.
Other programs are somewhat slower to load, as well, and when switching between open programs, there are delays and even more spinning color wheels and beach balls.
My computer has never had a problem until after I installed those updates.
I have repaired permissions and I have also re-donloaded the combo straight from the Apple website, but that did not work.
Is anyone else having this problem? Or has anyone else had this problem? What to do?
Thanks.
And, uhm, no- I did not have Time Machine set up, unfortunately.

Answer 1

Grant, thanks for the reply.
I have NOT been considering a new hard drive. My MacBook Pro is not even two years old, yet (I bought it in May 2010). So, the thought of having to replace my hard drive within 2 years has not even entered my mind and (as I stated) I only started having these problems within the past 2 weeks after having installed the latest updates via Software Update.
Really, if my Hard Drive needs to be replaced after less than 2 years of light use, then I will just chalk this up as a lesson learned and just not buy another Apple product and would probably just buy a Windows-based laptop rather than replace the HD in my MBP.
I am working on transferring my files (the ones that will still open and/or copy) to an external hard drive and doing a clean install of my OS X. I also am trying to figure out if I can somehow manage to save my pics that will not copy to the external hard drive but are saved on my iPad before I do so.
I'm not a computer or Mac genius by any stretch of the imagination, but I do appreciate your reply and advice. Unfortunately, I don't have any idea what it means to re-write a "wvwey block with a known-good pattern." Is that something I have to do manually? You stated that the option is in Disk Utility. Is "write zeroes" an option that you can select or is something you have to input manually? Can you break it down in simple terms for me or give me some step-by-step instructions or a link?
I apologize for my ignorance, but (again) I do appreciate your replay and advice as well as that of HackInt0sh.
Thanks.