A valuable lesson for everyone, have a back-up and recovery strategy. If you don't want to lose it back it up.
I have been using drive image(ing) software for years now and it has hauled my a** out of the fire many times and for the cost it has been well worth it. It has paid for itself many times over in time and data saved.
Just imagine all the pain of a windows restore and all those security updates you would have to download, programs to install, tweaks to reapply. I break out into a cold sweat at the thought if you haven't got drive imaging software you should seriously consider it, the cost is a one off and not hugely expensive.