Help with 2000 Civic

I started my car one day last week & head a really loud noise, hard to describe - someone said maybe a bearing. Checked this forum & thought maybe the heat shield was loose. Noise was intermittent, performance didn't seem to be affected. Thursday when I started it my battery sounded weak, on the way to work my ac didn't seem to be as cool as usual. That afternoon the battery was really weak but it started, ran for a minute with squealing noises coming from engine, then died. Now battery is dead & I'm worried about doing more damage if I jump start it & try to drive it considering the other problems. Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks.

could be an alternator problem, have it checked to make sure it's still giving a charge - if not it needs to be rebuilt or replaced.