I had to reinstall my OS last week (Vista Business Version), and also
reinstalled Outlook 2003 (and was able to successfully re-import my saved
..PST file) . Before this, I backed up my Contact List as well as the old PST
file, but not my Personal Address Book. I thought I could just rebuild my
PAB from the Contact list.

Two problems I would appreciate help on (in fact, it's probably the same
problem, not two different ones):

1. When I click the Address Book icon in composing a message, I get an
error message saying: "The address book could not be displayed. The
Contacts folder associated with this address list could not be opened; it may
have been moved or deleted, or you do not have permissions. For information
on how to remove this folder from the Outlook Address Book, see Microsoft
Office Outlook Help."

When I click "OK" to that message, a new windows comes up, and it does
permit me to look at my Contact list if I select it from the "Show Names from
the..." dropdown choice at the top right. There are, in fact, three choices
in that list: "Contacts"... "Contacts"... and "Contacts (backup)". The last
two have my correct contact list (in fact they are identical). But the first
shown one (which is the default choice in the dropdown list), called
"Contacts" like the second choice is, shows no names or contacts in it at
all. I mention this because I wonder if there's a way to somehow delete that
first empty, zombie Contacts list choice, and if that might fix my bigger
problem:

2. I am not getting new names into my address book from people who send me
emails. And I can't even manually add any names, because when i try to open
the Address Book I get that error message I posted above, "The address book
could not be displayed etc."

Any suggestions?