This post essentially is to bring out an issue i faced during the installation of sharepoint server 2003 (MOSS) .
The MOSS 2003 that i wanted to install is a stand alone server with MSDE .
In brief i ll highlight the stages involved in insatalling MOSS 2003
pre-requisites
windows 2003 server ( std or enterprise edition)
1) windows server 2003 std or enterprise edition with SP2
2) setting the windows components or install the following system components
Application Server with the following components
a)Microsoft ASP.NET
b)Enable network COM+ access
c)Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) with the following components:
1)Common Files
2)Internet Information Services Manager
3)World Wide Web Service with the following components:
a) World Wide Web Service
4)SMTP service
5) world wide web service with Active Server Pages.
note: make sure the from page 2002 server extensions is not selected .
3) Dot net frame work 2.0
4) run the MOSS 2003 setup file,which installs essentially insatlls 3 components
a) The sharepoint portal server 2003
b) Sharepoint services 2.0
c) MSDE if required ( since i had used it )
afetr the completion of the insatllation it would automatically direct us to the portal creation page.
how ever at around 48 percent or 52 percent of portal creation i had encountered portal creation error.
The work around for the above error is
a) install SPS2003SP2-kb887623-fullfile-ENU.exe available at the following link
and
b) install WSS2003SP2-KB887624-FullFile-ENU.exe available at the following link
Redo the portal creation from the sharepoint portal server 2003 central administration site .
This time the marvel bestows itself onto a fresh portal site ,where the music of sharepoint features resonates 
