DirectX Disappeared

I played FFXI last night, shut down my computer, no issues.
Today, I turn it on, try to boot up FFXI, and it tells me DirectX is not installed. What the...? I checked my HD, it really is GONE. Not even a trace.  I redownloaded the software, but still. How can a program disappear without a trace? I am so goddamn confused. I ran my virus scan just to be safe, and I'm clean.

Something got corrupted?

H4XORZ?!?

>>2
If it got corrupted, there would still be traces and stray files, wouldn't there?

>>3

DEFINITELY!?!

>>1
hahaha oh windows

>>6
I've used Windows PC's all my life, never had an issue like this.
And if you want to get into the "zomg windoze sux" debate, well, if you know how to do basic system maitenance, it'll run as well as a Mac. Just because you are incompentent doen't mean the OS is bad. In other words, explain or GTFO.

I uninstalled something that wasn't there once.  Nasty stuff.

>>7
Seems I hit home.

>>9

Actually, no, it's just annoying that everyone blames the OS without knowing what they are talking about. And, you didn't actually answer my question.

>>10 Agreed. Having tried Debian, Ubuntu, Mac OSX, Red Hat and Solaris, I'll gladly admit that WinXP/Win2k3 are my favorite OSs.

>>10
You are saying this problem was not caused by Windows?