How do you mean, "using the Diehard feat"?
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Generally you incur the disabled status when you are at exactly 0HP. Being disabled means you act staggered (can only make a single move or standard action), and take 1HP of damage if you take a standard action. This 1HP damage will put you below 0HP, and therefore you are now dying and can do nothing but try and stabilize.
Diehard lets you retain the disabled status while below 0HP.
Hope that clears things up for you =)
Benefit: When your hit point total is below 0, but you are not dead, you automatically stabilize. You do not need to make a Constitution check each round to avoid losing additional hit points. You may choose to act as if you were disabled, rather than dying. You must make this decision as soon as you are reduced to negative hit points (even if it isn't your turn). If you do not choose to act as if you were disabled, you immediately fall unconscious.
When using this feat, you are staggered. You can take a move action without further injuring yourself, but if you perform any standard action (or any other action deemed as strenuous, including some swift actions, such as casting a quickened spell) you take 1 point of damage after completing the act. If your negative hit points are equal to or greater than your Constitution score, you immediately die.
Normal: A character without this feat who is reduced to negative hit points is unconscious and dying.
Look at sentence 3: "You may choose to act as if you were disabled, rather than dying."
This is poorly written, since you are not dying, you are stable.
Stable: "A character who was dying but who has stopped losing hit points each round and still has negative hit points is stable. The character is no longer dying, but is still unconscious. If the character has become stable because of aid from another character (such as a Heal check or magical healing), then the character no longer loses hit points. The character can make a DC 10 Constitution check each hour to become conscious and disabled (even though his hit points are still negative). The character takes a penalty on this roll equal to his negative hit point total."
So it should say 'You may choose to act as if you were disabled, rather than unconscious.' You decide when you would have dropped, etc.
So that clears up the first paragraph. Either you're unconscious, or you're acting like you're disabled.
(Combat chapter) Disabled (0 Hit Points): "When your current hit point total drops to exactly 0, you are disabled. You gain the staggered condition..."
Being disabled means also having the staggered condition.
The odd thing is the disabled condition itself includes every aspect of the staggered condition, and some extra stuff.
Staggered: A staggered creature may take a single move action or standard action each round (but not both, nor can he take full-round actions). A staggered creature can still take free, swift and immediate actions. A creature with nonlethal damage exactly equal to its current hit points gains the staggered condition.
Disabled: A character with 0 hit points, or one who has negative hit points but has become stable and conscious, is disabled. A disabled character may take a single move action or standard action each round (but not both, nor can he take full-round actions, but he can still take swift, immediate, and free actions). He moves at half speed. Taking move actions doesn't risk further injury, but performing any standard action (or any other action the GM deems strenuous, including some free actions such as casting a quickened spell) deals 1 point of damage after the completion of the act. Unless the action increased the disabled character's hit points, he is now in negative hit points and dying.
A disabled character with negative hit points recovers hit points naturally if he is being helped. Otherwise, each day he can attempt a DC 10 Constitution check after resting for 8 hours, to begin recovering hit points naturally. The character takes a penalty on this roll equal to his negative hit point total. Failing this check causes the character to lose 1 hit point, but this does not cause the character to become unconscious. Once a character makes this check, he continues to heal naturally and is no longer in danger of losing hit points naturally.
Anyway, back to Diehard. Paragraph 2, sentence 1: "When using this feat, you are staggered."
So if you choose to act as if you were disabled, then you're staggered. That would happen anyway, since disabled includes the staggered condition. But that also means if you don't choose to act disabled, and instead choose to remain stable and unconscious, that you are also staggered. Which probably really doesn't matter in most cases, since if a stable creature regains consciousness, they become conscious and disabled, which includes being staggered anyway. So that line is completely superfluous, and is just reminding you that no matter what, you're going to be staggered at 0 hp or less.
Can you still take a 5 foot step and a standard?
Can you still take a 5 foot step and a standard?
You can take a standard action: "A disabled character may take a single move action or standard action each round..." (Though you may lose a HP by doing so)
Take 5-Foot Step is "No Action" so it's not limited by the types of actions you're allowed to perform.
"You can only take a 5-foot-step if your movement isn't hampered by difficult terrain or darkness. Any creature with a speed of 5 feet or less can't take a 5-foot step, since moving even 5 feet requires a move action for such a slow creature."
While disabled, you move at half speed.
So while your movement is hampered, it's not because of difficult terrain or darkness. So by RAW, as long as your speed is more than 5', you can.
Some GMs may consider moving at half speed to be basically the same as difficult terrain (or at least, something that is hampering your movement) and as such, they might rule that you cannot take a 5-foot-step while disabled.