"OK....If you are having troubles with the "Please Insert Adobe Illustrator CS3 to continue installation" I found an install that happen to work for me after repeatedly receiving this message. This is even after trying 3 different install methods (Burned DVD, PowerISO Mount, and HD extraction)
I can't guarantee results for you, but all I can report is that the following worked for me on my XP based machine:
(This assume that you have already been receiving the "Please Insert Adobe Illustrator CS3 to continue installation" message)
-Disconnected from internet (done as precaution, most Adobe installs go better this way based on my experience)
-Extracted Files to a "C:\Adobe Illustrator CS3" directory -Moved Crack Folder inside the C:\Adobe Illustrator CS3 outside the folder. (This may have not been necessary, but it was noted on a previous post. Please report it some of you find this step unnecessary.) -Ran Setup inside extracted folder and chose Uninstall option, then Finished -Did a Restart (Reboot) -Ran Setup again inside extracted folder and chose Install this time. At this point, you'll know if this works by the absence of the message. -After Install completed, Finished -Located the Illustrator.exe in the Crack folder moved earlier and Copied it -Moved to the "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS3\Support Files\Contents\Windows\" folder and pasted file and overwrote the one currently there. (Newbies...this may be different for you based on your install directory...ok?)