Hi, I am using an iMac/2.8Ghz/2008 model running leopard and basically I have come to a point where I have no way of backing up my files from the internal 'Macintosh HD'. I have tried all steps, I've tried to repair the disk in the disk utility through the Mac OSX installation disk but the repair fails. Also, my system will not start up in safe mode. Sometimes, I have the ability to log in to my account (which is very rare) but whenever it does I try to open an application and it doesn't. Even the finder won't. I cannot do anything. Eventually I tried to give my system a clean re installation backing up my files using the 'Archive and install' function but when I reach the 'select a destination' step the 'Macintosh HD' appears with a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark. It then said I have to erase the data but I do not want to reinstall OSX until I have backed up my important files. I have at least 5 years of work on there and I would be very devastated if I lost them. When I noticed my iMac was starting to die I went out and bought myself a 500gb external hard drive to back up my files but there was an error during the procedure. If you could please help me resolve this problem I would really really appreciate it. Thank you!