Flashing question mark folder, MBP 2010 won't recognize external HD, USB, or snow leopard disk

My macbook pro was having kernel panic issues that wouldn't go away after disk repair and verification so I backed everything up, restarted in recovery mode, erased everything and was going to reinstall the operating system when things got a little hairy. I followed these steps attempting to do the erase and reinstall:

1. Before you begin, you need to be connected to the Internet.
2. Choose Apple menu > Restart, and then hold down the Command (⌘) and R keys while the computer restarts.
3. Select “Disk Utility,” and then click Continue.
4. Select your startup disk from the list on the left, and then click the Erase tab.
5. From the Format pop-up menu, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled), type a name for your disk, and then click Erase.
6. After the disk has been erased, choose Disk Utility > Quit Disk Utility.
7. If you’re not connected to the Internet, choose a network from the Wi-Fi menu in the right corner of the menu bar (in the top-right corner of the screen).
8. Select Reinstall Mac OS X, click Continue, and then follow the instructions.

After I clicked reinstall Mac OS X it asked me to choose between the disk I had erased and renamed and another named Recovery HD, I chose the disk I renamed per the erase directions and clicked continue but nothing happened. I thought it was just going slow and figured it was going to take awhile so I left my computer plugged in and on and set it on my coffee table to monitor it while watching a movie. Nothing happened for the duration of the movie so I made the stupid decision to try and restart it and try again only this time a flashing question mark folder came up and command R did nothing after numerous attempts. I tried to plug in my external HD but it was never recognized and the question mark kept flashing even after pressing alt or command R. I mounted the operating system on a USB 3.0 using my fiance's newer MBP but again nothing was recognized even after pressing alt or command R. I put in a Snow leopard disk hoping to boot up and install with that but again nothing happened, still the flashing question mark.

Is the HD cable bad? Is my hard drive bad? any knowledge would be helpful please!