Threatening mail from Microsoft to close account is personal info not shared – mail looks genuine – what is the truth?

There is a mail from hotmail live team in my account asking to give login-id, password and other personal details. It has hyperlinks linking to Microsoft sites. It says if the info is not given in 48 hours the account will freeze. It also gives the procedure to back heavy files saying that hotmail servers are choked. Is this mail which sounds authentic from microsoft or some hacker?