Changed file viewing settings for Guest account, now iMac won't boot :(

I'll start this off by mentioning that I'm not really a techie type person, but I'll do my best to describe what I did as accurately as possible. And I'm pretty good at following layman's terms troubleshooint advice!
I recently decided to move my iMac into the living room of my apartment. I have never found the need to create a Guest account, but I figured it might be convenient for..well, a guest every now and then. But when I created the guest account I discovered very quickly that they would have access to all of my photos, documents, movies, etc. via the "view all documents" "view all photos" tabs on the left-hand side of the Finder window. I googled what to do and people were saying that it is best to change the viewing options of particular folders via the "get info" tab when you right-click on a folder. There were three categories, the first one I believe was Admin or the main user, the second is "wheel" and the third says "Everyone". I changed the "Everyone" access on the folders I wanted private from read-writable to "none". I left the "wheel" and "admin" categories alone. I also did this to the utilities folder, and the library under the assumption it would only affect guest access to these files, not admin access!
Also, under the Account Preferences tab in the Apple menu I disabled the viewing of shared folders for the guest. I also disabled automatic login.
Next thing I know, while I'm under the guest login trying to test out my security updates, I see I can't click on anything! Or open anything! I can't open the finder at all, I can't open the internet, I can't even get to the Apple drop-down menu. I couldn't even log out of guest. I had to turn off my computer without shutting it down. I turned it back on, and it went through the motions of booting up until the blue screen with the grey dashed loading circle (no beach ball, thank god). It acts like it will proceed beyond that point, the grey circle disappears for a moment, but then nothing happens and that process starts over. Like it's stuck and can't find it's own files. I also notice a tiny white square in the upper left-hand corner of the blue screen if that means anything.
I don't know what the heck I did. I think I somehow managed to block my own admin access (is that even possible??).
-Shayna

You need to get the install discs, erase the hard drive, and reinstall all the software from scratch. When acquiring a used Mac there's no way to know what condition its software is in... there might be hacks, security holes, pirated software, keyloggers, credit card sniffers, or other even riskier stuff on it. Using a pre-owned Mac's software as-is is a Very High Security Risk. Your Mac's software is obviously distressed. What's more, you are not licensed to use any Apple software unless you own and are in possession of the install discs.
Get the discs and reinstall. Apple will send you new ones that match your model for a small shipping fee. Call them and provide your Mac's serial number.

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