I'm a college student, I need to use my laptop. At first my laptop was freezing up for no reason, then it would go back to normal. Then it would freeze up again with that colorful swirling icon. This would constantly happen, when i would use google chrome, Safari, even when I wasn't surfing the Internet really. I got fed up and did some internet research where I came to the conclusion of putting my computer through Recovery Mode (I don't know much about these things) and reinstalling "OS X El Capitan". I had already had this thing installed in my laptop for months now, but the Internet told me I could install it again even if I already had it without no issues..

So when I did it, it took over an hour to install. When it finished, it told me there was error and it couldn't install. After that I shut down the laptop entirely and just wanted it  to startup normally. To take me to the normal login page. When I tried this, all it did was make me install "OS X El Capitan", making me wait an hour all over again just to tell me there's been an error. My question is, how do I make my laptop start back up to normal? What do I do? was this something I shouldn't have done? I can't turn on my computer without it making me install this thing.

DId I lose all my photos and data I had???? Help!! I'm not too bright when it comes to technology But i would like to avoid wasting money.

IF you need further explanation please ask, I know this might sound confusing.