Finder doesn't open!

Hello!
The problem I'm experiencing began immediately after I successfully (?) installed the Mac OS X Leopard DVD. After the necessary restart I noticed that the menu bar was blinking and when I'd try to open the finder the white dot would appear under the finder's icon only to disappear instantaneously. I tried rebooting but the problem persisted. When I launch another application the menu bar appears normal (that is, it's not blinking) and the app works flawlessly.
I thought I could circumvent the issue by updating to 10.5.4 through software update but when I pressed the 'install ... items' button all I got was the rotating beach ball.
I get the impression that the installation wasn't complete because when I opened system preferences to change the wallpaper, I couldn't find any reference to 'spaces' whatsoever. Moreover, the general appearance of system preferences is somewhat incomplete.
As you may have deduced, I'm not exactly a computer wizard! So, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could use layman terms in your comments.
Thanx in advance!

Clearly your upgrade to leopard was not completely successful. try creating a new account and see if things work normally there. If not, I recommend an [archive and install|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1710?viewlocale=en_US].

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Hi,
Thank you for the informative process to help. I just tried all of the above. My HD doesnt give error messages anymore and has been fixed, however the issue still persists.
When running permission repair i got a lot of messages. sorry for the long message but here is what it said. I am sharing because it means close to nothing to me.
Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”
Reading permissions database.
Reading the permissions database can take several minutes.
Permissions differ on "Library/Application Support/ProApps/Internal Plug-Ins/BrowserKit/iLife.bkplugin/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-rw-r-- , they are lrw-rw-r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/BrowserKit.framework/Versions/A/CodeResources ", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
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Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/FRSources.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
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