You said your files are backed up- on an external usb hdd or on the failing hdd? If they are on the failing drive stop using it immediately. Pick up a usb hdd enclosure to install it in. Then you can plug it into usb port of a working machine and browse it just like an internal drive to copy files over to hdd of working machine. This depends on how much life is left in it, but it should work a bit better than it does when booted in the laptop since it won't have as much stress on it.
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