media direct 3.5 reinstall question (oh no, what have I done?)

OK, I think I might have done something idiotic. I just got my new Dell Vostro, with xp on it, and dell media direct (which I had no clue what this was, having previously been an hp and thinkpad person)
Anyway I was anxious to get my business stuff back on it and get it up and running (because waiting on this new laptop had put me behind)...that took several days(phew) and I was smug until I inserted my camera's sd card to download the photos for my web update.
Suddenly, the card did not have the regular options pop up.(open folder, use windows scanner and camera wizard, etc) Ok, says I, but I couldn't find windows scanner and camera wizard (it was greyed out) I like using this, as it allows me to name photo groups as they dump...so I figured it was some hardware conflict. I uninstalled everything that might have to do with this that I had installed, no luck.
So then.....I uninstalled dell media direct from the add and remove programs.
I got the windows camera wizard back, and the normal sd card/external drive options came back and I was happy, until....
I went to play a movie dvd....duh. NOW I realize that this media direct was for.
So, I read the booklet that comes with the media direct disc I understand to mean(?) that if you put the dell media direct 3.5 disc back in to reinstall your software you will lose your data?
Can this be so? If so, I will have to find an alternative dvd player software??? because I am NOT starting over reinstalling everything.
please help me understand, or send me to a thread or article, I would be ever so grateful!!! thanks

 

Media direct, though it works within windows, is mainly a seperate "operating system" type thing that you boot by pressing that little house button by the power button. Try downloading CCCP with MPC ( http://www.cccp-project.net/) if you don't want to reformat with media direct. there are plenty free softwares out there that will play your DVDs

 

I dont know if reinstalling the media direct cd will delete your data, but what i can tellyou thatmight be helpful, is hat when you format your system, yo insert media direct cd first to make the partitions, then you install windows, and finally you insert the media direct cd again to install the software, i think that if you still have the partition you justneed to install the software again, but i dont know ifthis will delete your files.

 

If you want to reformat your entire hard drive, you have to start with the Media Direct DVD. I think the instructions you were looking at were for doing that, since you lose everything when you reformat.

You should be able to install Media Direct within Windows without reformatting everything. I think you just do Steps 8 and 9 of the instructions here
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=157838

 

reinstalling media direct formats your drive, so it does delete all of your data.

 

Even if you do it using Dellkit?

 

AFAIK the only way to reinstall MD is using the dell CD...

 

Yes you use the Media Direct disc, but steps 8 and 9 of Les' instructions
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=157838

seem to have to do with installing the part of Media Direct that exists within Windows, immediately after installing Windows.

 

You can't use just some of the steps, otherwise MD will say it's being installed improperly and fail.

 

I think doing only the last steps is valid in this case, the initial steps are only for the creation of the partition.

 

I took my default DVD player off of MD and switched it to WMP...