Q: I am getting a circle with a slash. Whats the problem?

Macbook pro 2009 got hung. I had to press the power button to reset. Then  it gave me a circle with a slash on boot. If I try to press option key, the boot too recovery online mountain lion recovery also fails with same circle and slash. I tried using a recovery disc, it took me through the language selection but then reverted to same circle with slash. Please help