I think i messed up my computer:(

I need help! I've been a new mac convert for about a year now. Still don't know how to do a lot of things. Anyway, a big storm rolled in last night, so i shut down my imac. when shutting down, it asked if i wanted to update. I said yes and it started to run auto update when i lost power and the machine shut down. Next morning, everything boots up and runs fine except i when i try to watch a movie preview on applemovietrailers, quicktime says i need to update. Then I check itunes and it won't open either. when i click on it it says it had to close unexpectedly. I tried reinstalling both quicktime and itunes, but the same thing keeps happening. I finished all the updates this morning as well. I even went to finder and deleted all files having to do with qt and itunes, then reinstalled. same issue. then i followed the uninstall for itunes for all files related to itunes from the apple support. then reinstalled itunes. still no go. Any suggestions? I would just revert to previous backup, but that was 8 months ago (we moved the office and i stupidly didn't hook up timemachine again). Anyway, we would lose a lot of pics if we revert back 8 mo so that is a last resort. Calling all brilliant Mac peeps! Please help!

I'm new at this myself, but if the only thing you are worried about losing is the set of pics, why not back them up to something (CD, DVD, external drive, whatever) and then restore the backup and copy the pics back? Of course, if someone wades in with a better solution, do that, but seems to me this could work.

You can try downloading and installing the combo update found here.

Don't think it's going to work, but it's worth a shot.

Next is probably going to be a re-install using the archive and install option making sure to select the 'Preserve users and network settings". This will keep your data and settings. However, as always, I recommend doing a backup first, just in case. You can read more about it here.

I am with bobtomay here, back up your data and do the archive/install option from your OS disc, you should have at least a pair of grey discs that came with your Mac to restore it, should give you the option to archive and install.

I'm not sure I should mention this.

Under /Library/Receipts are files that indicate updates. I think that if you remove the ones time stamped at the date you updated, then shutdown and restart, that the updater will think you are not up to date and re-download for updating again. You can run Updater via the Preferences panel.

I recommend backing up before trying the above.

Try booting from the install Tiger/Leopard DVD, whatever system you are using as your avatar does not say, and run Repair Disk from there and see what is reported.

Then as bobtomay suggests download the combo updater, run Repair Permissions, and then install the updater, run Repair Permissions again.