Outlook - Cannot start Outlook

I use a laptop with Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 and Windows Vista .  Yesterday I got the message:

'Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook.  Unable to open the Outlook Window. The server is not available. Contact your administrator if this condition persists.'

Immediately before getting this message for the first time, the laptop had frozen with the hard drive running for what seemed a long, long time.  I removed the battery to turn it off. 

Everything else seems to work including the other Microsoft Office 2003 programs Word and Excel.

Jon

This issue may occur if you deploy Outlook 2003 with the Microsoft Office 2003 Custom Installation Wizard and specify a personal folder (.pst) file in the Windows Installer transform (MST file) by using the Default location for PST files path option. The problem occurs because you specify a file name instead of a folder path.

to resolve
   1. On the Change Office User Settings page (page 10 of 24), expand Microsoft Outlook 2003, expand Miscellaneous, and then click PST Settings.
   2. In the right pane, double-click Default location for PST files, and then type the path that you want in the Default location for PST files box. For example, type %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\.
   3. Click OK, and then follow the steps to complete the wizard. When you have corrected the MST file, deploy Office by using the correct MST file.

To resolve this issue for an existing installation of Outlook that is experiencing this problem, specify the .pst file by using the Mail icon in Control Panel.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822503