Acrobat 9.0 Pro and Office 2008 updates download but won't install

Question

I hope I'm not alone experiencing the following difficulties installing third party patches and updates and that someone who reads this may recognize the problem…and its solution. I've run Adobe Updater (6?) for CS4 Design Standard which includes Acrobat 9.0 Professional, and subsequently, Microsoft Autoupdate for Office 2008 v12.0.1, but find that neither will install the downloaded updates which disappear immediately after an (unsuccessful) installation attempt.
Disk space is not a problem (500GB HD) nor is memory (4GB RAM); I'm using OS 10.6.4 (10F569) which is the most current set of OS updates I can locate. I had successfully been running CS4 with Adobe's most recent patches (e.g. P'Shop 11.0.2 and Acrobat 9.3.3) until the 9.3.4 patch failed to install with the message that +"Safari and Acrobat apps must be closed in order to proceed"+—they were closed as was everything else that wasn't essential according to a check of the Acitivity Window. A grab of the alert panel reads:
+"AcroProUPd934_all Update Failed: The Patch has failed because the application has been modified since it was originally installed (for example, plug-ins may have been disabled). Please go to the Adobe support website for more information regarding how to re-enable disabled components prior to installing the patch, or you can uninstall and reinstall the application, and then reinstall the patch."+
Of course, uninstalling CS4 and reinstalling the entire suite of apps reverts all of them to their original versions, now none of them will accept an update…whether manually downloaded and fed to it or by using Adobe's most recent AutoUpdater. The most consistent message is an alert panel stating that in order to continue, Safari and Acrobat applications must be closed—which they are.
Not surprisingly, after nearly 8 hours on a cell phone with Adobe Tech Support in Delhi, 5 different techs and a manager, the case remains open a week later; it seems +"no one has ever seen or heard of this problem before"+ and an overly apologetic manager could only repeat +"it's [Adobe] policy to remove all copies of CS4 from existence once CS5 is introduced."+ While we waited for 500MB of updates to download more than once, a helpful tech suggested I'd have more luck finding a used copy of CS4 on the net than getting a link to another download from Adobe.
With regard to Microsoft Office 2008, I'd been running v12.0.1 and the MS Autoupdate app has tried to download and install v12.1.0 (and those which follow) but when installation is attempted, an alert panel reads:
+"There is a problem with the Office database. Office might be unable to access the data base or the database file might be damaged. Without the database, you might be unable to use the Address Book, Scrapbook, and other features that store your personal information. To rebuild the database, Open Microsoft Office 2008/Office, and then open the Microsoft Database Utility. For more information, open the Database Utility application, and on the Help menu, click Database Utility Help."+
All attempts to rebuild the database fail, noting…
+ERROR: Failed to open database [Head]+
+ERROR: Corruption opening database [16003:""]+
======================
+Scan Ended+
====================
Two hours on the phone with a relentlessly pleasant Nova Scotian tech for Microsoft revealed little but the suggestion that +"the app doesn't seem to be able to recognize your hard drive. I've never seen this problem before."+
With luck, perhaps someone reading this far recognizes the issue and can offer a solution? It will be gratefully received! Thanks,
David

Answer 1

Disk space is not a problem (500GB HD)
How much space is available out of the 500GB?
Have you tried any of the following:
Disconnect all peripherals from your computer. Boot from your install disc & run _*Repair Disk*_ from the utility menu. To use the Install Mac OS X disc, insert the disc, and restart your computer while holding down the C key as it starts up.
Select your language.
Once on the desktop, select Utility in the menu bar.
Select *Disk Utility.*
Select the disk or volume in the list of disks and volumes, and then click *First Aid.*
Click _*Repair Disk.*_
Restart your computer when done.
Repair permissions after you reach the desktop-http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25751 and try the installations again.