Palm v reinstall software

I have a very old Palm V PDA. I have had no trouble hotsyncing it to my computer (Windows ME), but recently when I've tried to open the program on my computer, I've been getting a Microsoft error message that said it "can not access the Address book database" and it will not let me open the Palm V program. My handheld has been working fine, so I didn't want to HotSync it when I was getting this error message and risk messing up my all my info. I thought I would re-install the software, but I kept getting the same message. Then I thought I would completely remove the software from the computer and then reinstall it as a new program. Removing the program was no problem, but when I started to reinstall it I realized that I may lose all the data in my handheld when the software re-loads. Will it recognized that there is existing data and NOT overwrite it, or did I just do something unfixable?