Everything is missing, Programs, Files, Directories

Here's what's going on:

Had several programs open last night, Word, Firefox, iTunes. I had just downloaded some new music from amazon.com. Went to iTunes to "add a new folder" to search for music. When the dialog box opened to select the folder I noticed about half of my sub-directories under My Music were not showing up. So, I closed the dialog box and tried again only to find only four subdirectories showing up. Time to re-boot! When the computer restarted everything was missing, all programs, all files and almost all of my sub-directories.

What I did:

Well, Norton AntiVirus still worked (hmmm, virus anyone?) so I did a scan and it came up with nothing. Checked my C drive properties and found it still showed 67.2GB in use which makes me feel a little better. Tried a System Restore twice to no avail. Everything is still missing. Did a CHKDSK and Memory Check and everything passed. No errors found. CHKDSK did show 31188 files on the disk. Went to bed.

Now what?:

Currently at work so just seeking advice for when I get home. A friend at work gave me AVG Rescue to try. Don't know if I should do this first or check into the "too many programs in the start menu" issue I've read about. All I really care about are my photos and my music. If I can get those back and back them up I'll just do a System Recovery (after I run AVG) and reload everything.

Anyone have any advice? Thanks.

thanks richc46. one question about back up. is this a fuction of windows 7 like System Restore? what is the procedure?

thanks for the help. won't get home until 5 pm EST. I'll post back here with results tonight. thanks again.

one more question. should i run malwarebytes in safe mode or does it not matter? thanks again.