I followed Amanda's instructions to the letter and got results as described, but for some reason got this error on Step 11!

"Windows could not start the Office Sharepoint Server Search on Local Computer. For more information, review the System Event Log. If this is a non-Microsoft service, contact the service vendor, and refer to service-specific error code -2147467262." 

Oh yeah..."-2147467262"...I remember that one! Where do they come up with these codes?!? [:@] Anyway, I checked the System Event Log and found this little gem:

"Job 'Distribution List Import Job' failed after 3 tries and 180 second(s). Will not try again.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp."

 I tried starting it again and got this:

"Job 'Distribution List Import Job' failed. It will be re-tried again in 60 second(s).

Reason: Failed to obtain crawl status.

Techinal Details:
Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfileException: Failed to obtain crawl status.
   at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.SRPSite.IsImportInProgress(String contentSourceName)
   at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfileConfigManager.IsProfileImportInProgress()
   at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfileConfigManager.IsImportInProgress()
   at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.DLImportJob.Execute()
   at Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.JobHandler.Execute(Object state, Boolean timedOut)

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp."

and again:
"Starting up database 'SharedServices1_Search_DB_6550d16c-23b6-493c-a92c-21c810deeed4'.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp."

"Job 'Distribution List Import Job' failed. It will be re-tried again in 60 second(s).

Reason: Failed to obtain crawl status.

Techinal Details:
Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfileException: Failed to obtain crawl status.
   at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.SRPSite.IsImportInProgress(String contentSourceName)
   at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfileConfigManager.IsProfileImportInProgress()
   at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfileConfigManager.IsImportInProgress()
   at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.DLImportJob.Execute()
   at Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.JobHandler.Execute(Object state, Boolean timedOut)

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp."

and then it appears to loop round these errors.

I tried starting up the Sharepoint Home and first time it came up with an error, but after I did the bits above it seemed to then work ok.

I tried starting up the Sharepoint 3.0 Central Administration and that appears to come up fine. I checked the version in Site Settings and it's Version 12.0.0.4407. So all seems well....the rest of Step 11 failed when I tried to Start the Search Service in the Operations page. I get:

"The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion"

Is this a "Microsoft timely fashion"? 

Anyway, the second time I tried to start it it worked. Seems like everything takes two goes! [:D]

Honestly, I'm really impressed with the new Sharepoint 2007, as with any product, especially in Beta I expect problems. From experience with RedDot, Hummingbird, M$ MCMS, M$ TFS  etc. It's the joys of being in the software business!