MacBook Pro crashed
Hello everyone, I would appreciate help! I have a MacBook Pro, circa 2009, and installed El Capitan a few months ago. Everything was working fine until I restarted the computer a couple of hours ago. It was slow getting going, then a "do not enter" sign appeared, then the Apple logo, and finally a page titled "Recovery information". This page is suggesting a few options, for example, "repairing the volume"; or "reinstalling OS X". If at all possible, I would like to avoid losing all the information I have/had on my computer. (Unfortunately, I had not set up Time Machine). I have no idea what to do, and am reluctant to try anything until I know if there is some way I can recover my files, my email (in the Mail program), photos, music, etc. I am able to connect to the internet via Wi-Fi and that is what I am doing right now.
Can anyone help?? Thank you so much!