nuked

[bar]

I have found the relevant passage in the vc.el:

;; 5. File looked registered and not locked, but is actually unregistered.
;;
;;    Potential cause: master file got nuked during window P.
;;
;;    RCS: will fail with "RCS/<file>: No such file or directory"
;;    SCCS: will fail with error ut4.
;;
;;    We can let these errors be passed up to the user.
;;

does this mean that there is no fix?  I must suffer for my stupidity  
indefinitely?

here is what has occurred:
I had a terrible virus.
I backed up my files, and reformatted the puter, having been unable to  
correct the problem.
I installed stuff again, downloaded emacs anew, and got it going.
I put back my .emacs and other customizations....

but some of them had been registered with RCS, and the "new" emacs did not  
accept my RCS folder, which I had saved and put into the proper  
directory.  similarly broken is gdb - I get, no such file or directory....

now, some vcs things will work.  I can get it to list registered files  
(none).  and sometimes it tells me that a file is protected and asks if I  
want to try to save anyway.  but it's all hairy and unpredictable.

do I really have to reformat the whole computer again to repair this?   
where is this horrible master file?  I am not a programmer, and I'm sorry  
if this question is terribly annoying.

I am (for now) stuck with windows ME.

many thanks for any help,

-bar