Disc Utility can't repair HD and can't restore so I can save the files to an external drive
I had the dreaded spinning beach ball and my computer wouldn't boot properly. (Problem started after I stupidly installed and ran "Avast" anti-virus and stopped it after 40 minutes before it had finished its job - worked well the first time I used it)
Inserted the Snow Leopard install disc. Brought up Disc Utility and tried First Aid. Failed. Got "Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disc and restore your backed-up files". I tried to transfer the corrupted HD across to a brand-new 2TB external drive through the "Restore" function but that failed. I'd like to save the photographs and word files at least. (I know how to erase and reformat). How do I do this? I can't repair the HD and I can't export the files.
I've never bothered with the Time Machine btw - so that won't help.
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)