Laptop suddenly crashed

I have an Asus eee 1000h laptop/notebook that I found recycling one night. It was pretty much brand new, from a home where they seem to test electronic products and throw them away about every 6 weeks or so.
According to the stickers it had Windows XP. I say that because although it was running XP, I recall error messages regarding Windows no longer offering updates (or something like that) and sometimes offers/suggestions for updates of Windows 7. (Not sure if the details on that, but I wish I'd have paid more attention now.)
Anyway, it was running quite well otherwise. No problems whatsoever. And so I started to use it mainly to store all my files (especially media, photos, etc) that I'd clear off my cell phone.
Eventually I started getting warning messages regarding expired anti-virus protection and the vulnerability my "now considered old" laptop would face. I tried keeping up via freebies left and right, but didn't think anything would really happen since it was seldom I connected it to the internet (when downloading the freebies, uploading/downloading files to/from clouds, occasional web surfing, etc).
Well last night, all of a sudden, I tried to fire it up and got an error message instead reading "Windows Message: The system is not fully installed. Please run setup again." Needless to say I freaked out, because I tried F2, F8, F10, F11, rebooting in different ways, but ultimately received the same message. I couldn't even get it into Safe Mode.
I'm wondering if it may have been a virus because I did research some hacking information not long ago when I was locked out of my old smartphone. In any case, I'm wondering what I can now do about it as I need to recover all my trillions of files it contained.
Any and all help, advice, or suggestions in troubleshooting this will be so gratefully appreciated. Thank you.

 

My inclination is that you are probably right about that virus, but it was most likely already hiding in the system when you found the thing, rather than being something that you accidentally installed yourself. If you can't get into the system at all, or even fully boot your laptop, you will likely at this point, need to bite the bullet and take it to a professional. Spend whatever it takes and see if the data can still be extracted. Who knows, the pro may even be able to get rid of the nasty bug if one exists. Hopefully, someone more experienced than I can get in here and help you a little better, but that's all the advice I have at this time, except maybe to Google your laptop's symptoms and see if there is a diagnosis.

 

Let me get a clearer picture. Is this laptop of yours from the recycling center? And that is already loaded with the Windows XP for the OS? If that is the case then I think it is more likely an indication of virus since you said the anti-virus is expired. My second suspicion is a corrupted module in the installer. In any case, my suggestion is for you to clean up the hard disk, erase everything although copy into a backup USB stick the folders and files you want. After cleaning the hard disk, format it and install using a CD installer.