Outlook 2003 locked .pst file

I recently upgraded to Outlook 2003 and when I tried to use my old .pst file
to retain my personal folders, contact, and notes I am getting prompt for a
password. I did not have the file password protected when it was in use but
now I can't use it. Anyone know why this happen or how to get around the
password prompt?

Sorry to tell you this but Outlook 2003 is NOT backwardly compatible with the earlier versions.
I set up 2000 to see if I could do exactly that but there is no way you can do it because it doesn't save the same way as 2000 did. I had the problem because 2003 gave me a few problems with the fonts when I first set Outlook 2003 up. So I went back to 2003 but installed it over 2000 and it worked but there was no way I could get the old folders set up using the .pst setting.

Have you downloaded the latest update SP2 from the Office site?
That may help.