Is my MacBook Pro hard drive dead?

[BCAir]

The hard drive on my computer stopped booting up.
Apple MacBook Pro 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 with 500GB Hard drive (spinning type)
MacBookPro5,3
OS X 10.11.2

I cannot think of anything that might have caused it to suddenly stop. My suspicion is the drive needs to be replaced. I have two question.

Based on the following steps, do you think it is dead?
When I turn it on it usually shows the circle with slash though it, and then eventually it shows the OS X Utilities menu with the four options.

1 Restore From Time Machine Backup
When I choose this option, my Time Machine Backup partition of my external hard drive cannot be located, even though it can find another partition on the external drive.
2. Reinstall OS X
The internal disk and attached external disks are not options I am shown as available to reinstall OS X.
3. Get Help Online
4. Disk Utility
When I choose this option, the disks and partition are grayed out. I was able to try to do first aid on the internal disk once and the attached image shows the results.

I tried an OS X Recovery
In this case disk recovery gives only one option for OS X Capitan installation and it is the Recovery HD (650MB total, 121.9 available)

I also tried resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
The result was I was again show the OS X Utilities screen with the four options
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201295

Assuming it is dead, would the Western Digital WD500LPCX 500GB Blue 7mm, SATA 6 GB/S 16 MB I purchased be a suitable replacement?

 

[snaky69]

Hard drives die. All of them. It's a matter of when, not if. Sounds like yours just kicked the bucket. The WD drive you mentioned would work. Any 2.5" SATA drive 9.5mm or under in height will work.

 

[Fishrrman]

If you want to replace the drive, now's the time to put an SSD into it.
You won't believe the performance increase.

480gb SSD's are downright affordable these days.

Pick up an external 2.5" USB3 enclosure at the same time.

I would recommend that you "prep and test" the new SSD -in- the enclosure BEFORE you install it into the MacBook.

Put a fresh version of the OS onto it.
Reboot to the SSD -- at the appropriate time, the Setup Assistant will ask if you wish to transfer data from your old drive.
Now connect the TM backup and "bring over" your data.

If all of the above goes ok, now it's time to power down, and do the drive swap.

When done, put the old drive into the enclosure and see if you can re-initialize it.
If it re-initializes, run Disk Utility's "repair disk" function on it FIVE times.
If you get a good report EVERY time, I'd use it for "non-critical" storage (i.e., stuff you don't mind keeping, but wouldn't grieve deeply for if the drive failed on you).

 

[BCAir]

Fishrrman, thanks for your suggestion. I think at this point I am going to go with an regular hard drive.