Help, Moved applications folder accidently

Question

Hi All,
           while playing with my new wacom bamboo tablet I've accidently moved my entire application folder (over 17Gb) onto my C drive (not in users folder)
Now I cannot move it back to my home folder.
when trying to move it back I get the error message "this folder is in use by lion and cannot be moved"
I've tried copying them back to my home folder but lion is still using the original files in the new C drive location.
I would imagine all the permissions and update data is with the original files.
I'm struggling to understand how I could have moved them so easily (without me realising I've done it, or altering any system properties/permissions at all), yet I cannot move them back. - surely this safeguard should work both ways?
Any suggestions would be appreciated>
Regards,

Answer 1

I have no idea what you are referring to with a "C" drive - is that an external hard drive? The proper file path for the Applications folder is HD (Macintosh Hard Drive) > Applications. They need to reside there for Software Update to find them. Here is a screenshot of mine:
I see no Applications folder in my User folder:
Maybe you could send screenshots of where yours is located - that might be helpful to try to figure things out.