Circle with slash on start up

[Lindsey]

So I've found some forums on this issue but nothing has solved my problem.

I've held command R on startup like some of the forums suggested. When I try a time machine backup no sources are found so that doesn't work. I also tried installing OS X Yosemite again the only disk option it gives me is RECOVERY HD. When I click on it it says that it is locked or OS X CANNOT BE INSTALLED ON RECOVERY HD.

I've also attempted to repair the MACINTOSH HD disk because it required repair and the message I get says "disk utility cannot repair this disk....". I don't know what else to do! Help.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Before this happened did you have a fully functioning Mac? What do you think happened to kick this issue off?

You cannot install onto the Recovery Partition as this is reserved space which is used for instances like yours.

Should there be Time Machine backups available? Had you been backing up this way?

Is Yosemite the same OS version that was on your Mac prior to this issue?

What are the specs of your Mac?

 

[Lindsey]

Thanks for the reply.
It seemed to be fully functioning, it's my boyfriends and I don't use it often. I was planning to install osmc on a flash drive, like I've done before, and it froze so I shut it down. when I turned it back on, I got the symbol.

There were no time machine backups available so I assume he wasn't backing it up this way.

Yosemite was OS being used at the time. It's a MacBook Pro, probably 5-7 years old.