Uninstalling CS3, with fun catches...

So, some time ago, I bought CS3 Design Standard, and installed it.
Sooner or later, my Windows Vista installation crashed. The entire installation fails to boot now, saying it's missing certain essential system files. Fed up with trying to salvage it, I got another hard drive and installed Windows Vista on it. Now, I can't start up a CS3 application to deactivate it, and because Adobe doesn't have an uninstall executable file, instead a utility that only uninstalls from that particular install, I now have an idle copy of CS3 laying around my room, unable to reinstall or even deactivate my original product. I called Support, and I cannot believe they'd charge me 30 dollars! What is this? We pay hundreds and thousands to buy these softwares and then get a smack behind the head when a computer problem comes up?
I tried reinstalling the Creative Suite, on a separate Vista installation on the same hard drive. It didn't install any components besides the Bridge and some other stuff. It didn't install Photoshop, Illustrator, or etc. This was all done on the same drive, C:\.
Anyway, I did some research on the internet, found out that people with similar problems completely reinstalled Windows over the installed drive. Basically, the hard drive it was installed on was wiped clean, then Windows was installed over it all. Completely fresh.
I actually couldn't find a case exactly or at least even similar to mine.
Anyway, I can afford to do that now. The only problem is that I have my serial, which I'm not sure will be accepted if I enter it in, and I don't know how I'd prove it's mine, other than saying it is...
So now I'm faced with a dilemma. I can completely reinstall Windows over my hard disk, then hope that it will accept my registration code, and work. Also, this is the same machine.
Any ideas?

You can try running the CS3 Clean Script:
A note about the cost of support. Years ago, Adobe, as well as other
companies, charged much more, in inflation adjusted dollars, then we do
now. Part of the way Adobe was able to reduce costs is to decouple the
cost of support. Those who need it pay for it. When support was freely
available, people called for all sorts of support that could easily be
found in the manuals. A charge of $30 probably doesn't recoup the cost
of providing support, but it does defray the cost and gets induces many
people to seek other avenues of less costly support (like these forums).
...Mike

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