Macbook Pro won't boot up, recovery not working

A few days ago my macbook pro crashed. it was being unresponsive for about 5 minutes so i turned it off and on again (ive done this a lot). except this time when i went to turn it back on i saw the grey folder with a question mark on it. i looked a lot into what to do but am currently stuck because i have tried everything ive seen and nothing has worked.
i went into internet recovery holding option when starting up because internet recovery was the only option it provided.
i have tried to install a new copy of OSX but when i get to the screen where it asks where i want to install it to, there are no locations for me to chose from.
i have tried going into disk utility but it doesnt give me the option to select my main disk, only the recovery one it just downloaded.
it seems that the computer is completely disconnected from the operating system.
I believe the problem might have something to do with me going a long time without updating software (i know it's stupid but i have a hatred for constant updates when the version i use works just fine)
I need to keep my files from this computer, it is absolutely crucial that my hard drive is not wiped.
is there a way to back up my files from this stage? i don't have a backup from before it crashed (sorry for not expecting my computer to just fail on me)
I have had this computer for less than a year.
so the main thing I need is to recover my files, even if it requires physically taking the hard drive out of the laptop to recover them on another computer.
any help is appreciated, thanks.
(p.s. I forget exactly which OS it was on, but i believe it was Mavericks, not sure which version of it)

The symptoms that you are describing indicate that your internal HDD has died. Your data may be lost or require professional recovery services to retrieve.
Enter the serial number (on the bottom) of your MBP here and post back the model information:
https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do
Ciao.

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MacBook Pro won't boot from recovery disc

Hi, I've got an early 1998 15" MacBook Pro that came with Leopard I think, but I've upgraded along the way and was running Mountain Lion when trouble started. A few months ago it started randomly crashing and restarting, then progressed to not starting up but sitting on the grey screen.
After reading some of the discussions on this and following the suggestions there, such as verifying and repairing the disk and the disk permissions, clearing the nvram etc, I took it in for a service and had the hardware checked - no problems found but the battery was replaced as it was pretty dead. A few days later the laptop started doing the same thing again.
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Now it won't boot to the recovery disc, either on the laptop or on the USB drive.
Startup pressing Command R does not get me anywhere but the grey screen. Startup pressing Option usually shows me a picture of the Recovery disc but clicking on it gets nothing but the grey screen. With both, there's either a freeze or a continuous spontaneous restart. I also tried telling it I'd install Linux if it didn't want to let me reinstall Mountain Lion, but it did not respond to that either.
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Edward Durrant wrote:
My question is, do I need the harddrive in for the laptop to function relatively normally?
This is where you would install OS X, so yes, you need a hard drive.

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Mac OS X Help
Isolating Issues in Mac OS
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1388
https://www.apple.com/support/osx/
https://www.apple.com/support/quickassist/
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/help/
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/tour/
Troubleshooting: My computer won't turn on
https://support.apple.com/kb/TS1367
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General purpose Mac troubleshooting guide: Isolating issues in Mac OS X
Creating a temporary user to isolate user-specific problems: Isolating an issue by using another user account
Identifying resource hogs and other tips: Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory and determine how much RAM is being used
Starting the computer in "safe mode": Mac OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?
To identify potential hardware problems: Apple Hardware Test
General Mac maintenance: Tips to keep your Mac in top form
MacBook Pro
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os?view=discussions
http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro

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Macbook Pro won't boot up, recovery not working

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