Really BIG Problem w/HDD - Need help ASAP

[winwiz88]

Ok so i decided to let my comp run over night as usuall and like always i use the Lock Computer feature in Windows as a precaution. Well this morning i wake up to find that my computer had rebooted (never happened before) and had an error message that was telling me something wasnt right with one of my drives. It told me to reboot and i did and after that i rebooted to my Win2k cd to try a repair installation. It was going painfully slow 20% in 30 minutes...and had to leave so i let it go. Windows Repair told me that the c: was corrupted and it couldnt continue. When i rebooted after that after detecting the drives on the IDE bus, it says
SMART Failure Predicted ib Primary Master WDC WD800JB-00FSA0
WARNING: Immediately back-up your data and replace your hard disk drive. A failure may be imminent.

I can continue the boot to get to a floppy disk, such as my Data Lifeguard Tools from Western Digital, but it when it gets to checking the space on the disks it just takes forever, and doesnt make it to the menu.

How do i get my data off, safely? Linux on a cd? but id need to be able to use my cd burner (could get cd drive from other comp). What about in a computer with XP Home in it? Is it safe to do that? or is there a risk?

By the way the drive is a Western Digital 80GB SE drive that i got only in July and has been in my comp since august.

I really need to get some data off of the HDD as i got lots of school work and notes on there....worst part i have a test tomorrow on lots of that stuff....

 

[Futher]

That's a tough call.... Can't think of any safe conventional ways of doing it. What I would do is just play around with different things. (This is only a suggestion, not a conventional way. I'm sure others will have better ideas). What I would do is turn it off and let it sit for a while. I would disconnect all drives except for the hard drive and your burner. Make your hard drive Primary Master if it's not already. After that, try booting up again. Also try to get some extra cooling on it. If it's about to fail, then it usually tends to run hotter because certain aspects of it aren't working. Other than that, I can't really think of anything =/

 

[winwiz88]

Ive got it all unpluged right now...i guess i could move a fan to the hdd cage to get that extra cooling. Hopefully this works.

If anyone else has a suggestion please drop a line here or IM me on AIM, my screenname is rocketgamer