MediaDirect3 Reinstall

I repartitioned my HDD after receiving it from Dell. I have XP on C: Data on F: and 2GB of unpartioned space for MD3. I did not realize I needed to load the MD3 software before XP. When the MD3 disk boots up option 1&2 look like they will reformat the entire HDD. Is this the case? I am willing to wipe the C: in order to get the MD3 working but I don't think I want to wipe everything and go start trying to reinstall all my programs again. If there is a way to do it without wiping my entire HDD please let me know.

Thanks

Dave

 

No, Unfortunately you’ll have to wipe clean the entire HDD

If you wipe out C: (the OS partition) and reinstall the OS, then anyway you will have to reinstall all the applications again even though you originally installed it on to another partition.

 

Well thanks for the information. I guess I'll be living without MD3.

While we're on the subject though...I have all my programs on my F:. If I were to wipe and reinstall windows, on C:,wouldn't my programs on F: still work if that partition didn't get wiped? Currently I only have the OS and no other programs on C:.

 

No, most of them will not. Because when you install a program it will not only copy it's files in to the program files directory, it also creates many windows registry entries and some programs may even need special runtime libraries that will be copied in to the Windows\System32 directory. In addition many new applications keep session and user specific data under Documents and Settings folder. Windows registry entries contain various information about a specific program, sometimes even the registration information of that particular program among other things. Therefore just backing up the program files folder is not enough. You need to run the installer again to restore all those registry entries and other files.