Turn on Computer and get the spinning wheel of death as soon as as i click on anything!

Hi,

I turn my iMac on and as soon as i click on anything i get the spinning wheel of death. I can not do anything with it unless i hard reset it. I am running an old OS X but can not check which one as i can't click on anything.

I am wondering if running the repair with the disk wipes the disk or just repairs it?

I am despirate to get my photo off my computer 😟

Thanks

Pip