Of course it should work.
And if you want a clean iso. You can ask Microsoft and they will give you the link.
I have the one for home premium.
30 bit
http://msft.digitalrivercontent.net/win/X17-24208.iso
64bit
http://msft.digitalrivercontent.net/win/X17-24209.iso
I'm sure that there is a way to fix it if and when you got the right answers. Either way if you don't find a way and your reason for not wanting to reinstall clean is the Data, I would suggest you boot of a linux live CD, recover your files and then reinstall system.
Did you already make sure that what's bothering you about it isn't changeable? Also have in mind that the next OS's will only be based of this one. So it might be worth getting used to.