When I go to 'Reinstall OS X' it launches right into the Capitan installation, not the OS X 10.6 installation CD which is in the drive. When I go to Disk Utility I see Capitan there, but as with my hard drive, I can't erase it and neither can I eject it.

Now here is what seems to have triggered the issue: I had just downloaded OS X Capitan and was attempting to install it, but the installation failed after the part where the computer restarts. I tried erasing the hard drive (I have a recent backup), but it always tells me 'Erase process failed.' I tried restoring from Time Machine Backup, and although it found my backups on an external hard drive, it doesn't seem to recognize them. I tried repairing the hard drive in Disk Utility with first aid, but it says it can't complete the repair.

After 5-10 minutes, it asks me to select a language, and then proceeds to OS X Utilities. Upon pressing the power button, the computer immediately turns on and chimes like normal, then goes to the white screen with the apple and a progress bar.

I have tried safe mode, resetting PRAM and SMC, recovery mode, everything I know of. My early 2011 Macbook Pro which uses 10.6 Snow Leopard is going straight to OS X Utilities upon startup, no matter whether I use any startup keys or what those startup keys are.

Os x utilities screen