Finder fails to open when starting up macbook pro due to low disk space (possibly)

Dear forum,
I have a Macbook Pro (13") running snow leopard and have a partitioned hard drive (half OS X and half Windows 7). This morning I was using the Mac side and was running low on disk space (very low) so I was moving desktop files into folders to free up some space. I restarted the computer to see what the free space was but the computer stopped/froze at the desktop image (no folders or dock appeared. I restarted the computer many times but the finder never opens and all I see is the desktop wallpaper. I donnected usb drives and put in dvds but the finder never appears so I cn do nothing but shut down and start up.
I ran Disk Utility but it found no problems with the disk. I do not have a backup of the important file forlders on my drive and due to low disk space I am worried to reinstall and archive the OS since there may not be enough disk space to archive (only about 220 mb free on the apple side when I am in windows using bootcamp).
Does anyone know what happeded to my machine? Is there such low disk space that finder had an issue? I have started on such low memory before.
What does Archive actually do when reinstalling OS X? Does it make a copy of the HD files and folders or does it simply reinstall the operating system piece by piece while protecting the files and folders that I wish to save?
Thanks for all your help and sorry for the length of the writing (I wanted you to understand all before replying).

Solved
By chance I got itunes to pop up (running hands over keys blindly) and with it the apple menu icon so I had access to my recently used items and so I could delete images from iphoto and thus bring the free disk space up above zero and then the dock/folders and finder came back....I have just backed up my important files......feeling better now
Any advice on how to more quickly handle this type of issue next time?
Thanks.

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