Please HELP!

Ok here's the situation. Over The past 6m my computer has been acting funning, getting slower, and with it a couple of peripheral failures along the way.
Funny how:
Folder and file names that have been scrambled and changed.
Disappearing files and folders.
Really long waits to access folders and files.
Hard disk is silent for a long period after you request data by opening a file or folder.
Windows boot steadily increasing and now >10 min with a WHITE progress bar on a black background. That I actually new when most of the problems started? Any ideas about the bar??

Anyways, Initially I tought it was viral, although I play cautious, I play MOSTLY unprotected.  So I tested via couple of online virus scanners....nothing. But decided to protect myself and installed a firewall, antivirus, and anti spy/adware. Still relatively clean. A few DINGS, but nothing catastrophic, but also no improvement. Ran Hijack this and DSS, Nothing.

Removed some programs, Defragged.....some improvement which quickly deteriorates. Now I can't even bring up the windows defragger.

At that point I had to fix a few other things. I know this is boring, but I don't know if it might be relavent.

Anyways, Finally dawned on me, might be the hard drive. Dowloaded Seatools. Every test RESULTS in Fail, actualy wouldn't even run. Then ran Acitive smart. which tells me WARNING! The drive Maxtor.........indicated a SMART error condition. Immediately back-up your data and replace this hard disc drive! A Failure may be immenent.
The problem areas:
The reallocated sectors count, Data address mark areas, current pending sector count, Seek time performance. I have no ideas what these mean, and I can provide a log or values if needed?

Please, What do I do? Can I fix it, if so how, and long term prognosis. What's the best way to back up data? Will reformatting work, or do I need a new hard drive? I must admit this was a hand me down, so evrything is official and validated, but I don't have any disks, ie windows and office. Any work around for that
On a similar note, it seems one of the corrupted files belongs to outlook, and now will not start up, I can GIVE you the error message, but mostly I was wondering if there was a way to get the contact information without opening the program??

Please I will give any additional information you need to get this working again, please HELP

Thanks Need system info, Operating system,cpu,ram [how much ram] how many hds? Quote

What do I do?

Can I fix it

Any work around for that(?)

The drive Maxtor...

Need system info, Operating system,cpu,ram [how much ram] how many hds?