Outlook will not launch properly after initial attempt at setting up Exchange e-mail

Question

I initially posted this on the general Outlook forum, but they said it was an Exchange problem so I should post it here for an answer.
I recently had to wipe my laptop and perform a clean install of Win 7 Home Professional 64 Bit.  I re-downloaded and installed my Office Suite (University 2010 ... basically everything in Professional), and can access everything except Outlook.  I
attempted to set up my school e-mail on it (which I have successfully set up on my desktop), but it wouldn't connect to the server.  It wouldn't let me cancel the set up, and now every time I try to open Outlook I get this error message:
The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable.  Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action.
Yes, I've verified I'm online.  :)
When I click OK, a new window pops up that says "Microsoft Exchange" and has my server and mailbox info, with a "check name" button.  When I click the check name, I get the same error as above; occasionally Outlook will hang in "not
responding" and I have to force close the program.
I tried uninstalling and re-installing Office, but no change (I'm guessing there were some registry files or something that hung around and keep trying to get back in).  I've tried going to Control Panel > Mail > E-mail Accounts and removing the
school account from the E-mail tab (I get the error: You cannot delete this Outlook data file.  Configuration information in the file is being copied to your new default data file.  You can delete the file after this information is copied).  I
was able to add a Gmail account, and it is working fine.  But I can't set up or get rid of this school account.  Occasionally I'll get that "Microsoft Exchange is unavailable" message again (seems to be random, I don't even have to be touching
anything and it will pop up), and I got a message earlier something about my OST (I think) file, but I didn't copy down that error and I can't figure out what I did to get it.  At this point I'm completely and utterly confused, and would appreciate any
help that anyone can come up with.

Answer 1

I set it up exactly like I did in Outlook on my desktop computer.  At this point I just want to get the account info off Outlook so I don't have to deal with it, even though I won't be able to check my school e-mail from my laptop without going through
the 4 steps it takes to log in through the school website.
If I go to Control Panel > Mail > E-mail Accounts, and try to delete the school e-mail from the list, it tells me "You cannot delete this Outlook data file.  Configuration information in the file is being copied to your new default data file.
 You can delete the file after this information is copied."  It's been giving me that message for the past week.  I can't go in to the Data Files tab to try to remove it, because I get the error "This data file is associated with a mail account.
To remove it use the 'E-mail' tab."  I've already tried uninstalling and reinstalling the entire Office suite, and it's still there.  I really don't want to have to reformat my computer again, but I'm afraid that's the only way I'm going to get this
off of here.
Just had a thought, is there anything on the desktop I can copy and paste it into a folder on my desktop so that I know it's set up correctly?  I'm 99.999% sure I did it the same way, but that's the only foolproof way I can think of to make absolutely
sure, and figured it was worth a shot.