I have already prepped the Forest and the Domain for both Exchange 2003 and AD 2003 and when I try to 'dc promo' one of my 2003 servers to a DC I get this message.

If you are using 2003 R2, you need to use the version of adprep located on CD2 in the CMPNETS/R2/ADPREP folder

(CD2 of the Windows 2003 Server R2 CDs)

interesting.. I will look for that file right now.. incidentally also I found out that we have an NT4 file server on our network which I was previously unaware of so the 2000 domain needs to be raised to native level correct?  As it is now in mixed, and I do believe that it should be raised before adding 2003 domain controllers - do I need to raise it before I ad prep again?

If I am being bold by asking you to confirm my next steps based on what I have learned here and from my further research I should:

1) get rid of the NT4 server (upgrade the application that resides on it to a 2000 box)
2) bring my 2000 domain up to native mode
3) run ad prep /forestprep and ad prep /domainprep from the 2nd CD of the 2003 Server R2 CD set

(am I correct in  assuming I will NOT need to run Exchange Forestprep and Adprep again)

4) and I should be able to promo my 2003 file server to my first 2003 DC it will capture the FSMO roles when doing so
5) Then I should demote my 2000 DC's to file servers

done?

Thanks for following up with my further questions - it made a difference in my planning process and I appreciate it.

Bonnie