Well, since I deal with sending bulk e-mail (I am the SpamKing) and other Internet markeing things for a living, I'll sound off.
How your e-mail was found:
At some point, somewhere, someone you signed up with sold your address...OR, the addy was posted up in a posting forum, where a handy little robot that doesn't sleep, known as a scraper, grabbed it - it doesn't need to be in the text as a link, the robot looks fo rthe style/format that indicates an e-mail addy:
***@***.com - notice how this autonmatically gets parsed as a link in here, because of the format. (A spider will find that, it'll end up on a bulk list and after a year or so of floating around various lists will get dropped for non-performance (no clicks).)
Another possibility is a random e-mail addy generator - they simply make millions of combinations of addys based on common names, etc. found on the web.
Anyway, at some point, someone opened an infected e-mail and their system was infected. Their addy was snagged and the connection was made to transfer the vrius out to the new list (likely accidentally).
Since your addy ended up, somehow, on the list, you got the virus.
Getting past this, there are a few things you can do to protect yourself in the future:
Go to
www.downloads.com and search for a product called Adaware - download it (free) and get it running. It'll find everything that isn't normally supposed to be on your system - including cookies. Be careful when you go inside it after it's done running (may take a while, mine runs for about 5 minutes). Move the columns around in the window so you can see the names of the files it's flagged. You'd be shocked at the crap your computer picks up while surfing.
Don't go crazy and delete everything - sometimes a file gets flagged that your OS needs to run a certain command - if you delete iot, the command won't work and you're into re-installing the OS - BTW, dump XP, it's got too many glitches still.
Once you get rid of those items, they are actually gone form your computer.
Because I can work from home, and my business is Internet based, my security levels on my anti-virus (Kaspersky) are set fairly high - that means any time a new cookie is laid on my, my virus scan screams that a virus has landed, when it's actually only a cookie.
You're going the right way. Re-format your PC, then I'd suggest a new e-mail addy to get a fresh start without spam - it's easier to tell friends a new address than re-format your PC every month or two - and heaven help you if YOUR PC sends out a virus...
Grab Adaware and be shocked at the crap your PC snags...it'll open your eyes.
because most of the junk is going to the "other" e-mail, not the one some folks at 
