dv6 hard disk 1 full 305, safe mode works

Hi my laptop is dv6 and OS is win7

After shutting down my laptop (the little yellow icon with the exclamation point was next to the shut down option. I thought it just meant it would install updates, I didn't hover over it to see what it did. after I clicked it I just left. so I didn't see if it went through updates while shutting down or whatever)

Now everytime I've tried starting it up, it just hangs at the windows logo startup screen.
I've tried system restore and startup repair, but they didn't help.

ran a test and got these errors:
hard disk 1 quick 303
hard disk 1 full 305

after googleing the errors I figured I need to replace the hard drive.
I'm just wondering if it's really the hard drive failing because I have been able to access safe mode just fine.
does that make a difference?