wingers

When it was jacked up the wheel dropped then stopped then dropped again about 2-3" and had alot of movement up and down i was told by the garage it looks like the bearing has collapsed but the steering is fine no jerkyness or anything like that i have bought the strut mounts and bearings as they were only

I have just bought my first galaxy and i knew there was a clunk noise from the suspention on the test drive so thought bottom arms/ drop links but turns out to be the top mounts the haynes manual says i have to undo the hub nuts and remove the hub to remove the strut but i have never done that before when removing the struts on previous cars is it nessesary or can i get them out without doing that? Other thing is i know the galaxys are prone for driveshafts failing would i just be better to replace them now if i have to remove the hub from the driveshaft and save my time in the long run? As its only got 89k on it is it common for this part to fail at this sort of mileage?