A virus wiped out my computer!!!!

[bronson@inwave.com (Nate Mellom)]

I don't know how I got it, but when I went to turn on my 'puter the 
other day it flipped out and gave me a message saying one of my registry 
files was corrupt, absent or not writable.  I called tech support, and 
after an hour of futzing they concluded (as I did) that I got hit with a 
virus.  I had to do a complete system restore, which wiped out 
EVERYTHING on my computer, including all my old emails, pictures of 
Christmas and my engine swap and cars (probably 150 pics total), 
everything.  Shitty yes, but if I didn't do it when I did the theory is 
that it could have gotten so bad that eventually I wouldn't even be able 
to turn my machine on.  So, now I'm back to a clean computer and WinME. 
 I still haven't decided whether I should re-install the XP upgrade or 
not.  Comments?
Oh, and this was less than a week after my Norton subscription ran out. 
 I was planning on updating it soon, but I guess not soon enough.  
My recommendation:  Backup all your important stuff (pictures, files, 
etc) and have up-to-date virus protection.

Nate
Re-setting message filters, downloading replacement programs, etc, etc, 
etc.....