Vista - Help - Lost email messages!

I've been having problems with Vista and was told to uninstall and reinstall
but before I did I backed up my files. I was told I should back up WM also
but MS tells me we can't do this and this is why my email is now blank. They
tell me my messages are out there somewhere I just need to find them and
restore them. Here are 2 messages I have received: "Windows Mail could not be
started because MSOE.DLL could not be initialized." and "Windows Mail could
not be started. The application was unable to open the Windows message store.
Windows Mail was unable to locate its message database. If you've moved the
database files to a new location, click ok to reset the database path to that
location. (I think I clicked ok, not sure) Otherwise, click cancel to
proceed. Any existing messages will be found under orphaned accounts
(0x00000000)." Please help! I'm at work, please answer here and copy also to
cmcclure1@xxxxxx - Thanks!