Unable to open any folders in Finder

Suddenly I can't see the contents of any folder through Finder. I double click on it and it takes me to a new Finder window with nothing in it. When I get info on the folder the details about the size don't load. It just keeps searching for it. All folders are like this except for one I created on my Desktop. I can't run disk utility because I can't open the Utilities folder. I am so lost! I've been running Yosemite for awhile now.

I can't run disk utility because I can't open the Utilities folder. I am so lost! I've been running Yosemite for awhile now.

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You can't run Disk Utility and check your hard drive while the system is up and running. Reboot your Mac while holding down the command and r keys. That will get you into Recovery. Once in Recovery, select Utilities, Disk Utility, and verify your hard drive. Let us know the result.

Well I learned quite a bit. While trying to restart I got a message that Finder could not close because operations were still in progress. I ended up doing a hard reboot but got distracted and forgot to enter safe mode. I thought I'd go ahead and check if my folders would open and they're back to normal. So it appears Finder was just super slow.