Some unknown- I believe virus has destroyed my Laptop.

I believe some unknown virus has destroyed my laptop.

While I was working on my laptop (lots of files open, and sites have been running), a message popped up on my screen. I did not pay attention to the message and clicked OK. All a sudden my PC was switched-off itself. When it switched back on, all I see is “Recycle Bin” Only. All my files on my hard drive, Desk top, my documents and all MS Office programs have disappeared. There is nothing on my favourite. When I clicked my programs, I cannot see anything, it is empty.

Naturally I started to panic. I do not know where to turn to.

I restored my Internet explorer browser from the recycled bin and try to search for a solution, but there are too many information on the Net. I found some sites which they claim can recover files, but not free and not sure if they even work.

When I click the “Recent Items used” button and click one of my files from the list, which were saved on my hard drive despite my hard drive is empty, I managed to open it. This is really weird. How can I open an Excel file without MS excel? And I did some search to see if my files are some where hidden. Yes there, but I do not where and how to restore them.

Could some please shade some light on my nightmare?

I have Window XP, and was running ant-virus software while this happened.

Thanks for help!