'the preferences file is corrupt and has been reset to the default settings' - cs4 Mac

greetings!
every time i start illustrator i encounter a new error.
"the preferences file is corrupt and has been reset to the default settings."
"the corrupt file will be backed up as Adobe illustrator Prefs.err"
this problem manifested after i added some more .ai and .ase files to my swatches directory. i do not believe anything else changed.
not sure how to diagnose the problem. is there a debug mode or something? perhaps an offending file.
an option would be to try remove each added swatch file or folder individually, but this would be a very very time consuming process for me.
i use cs4 on a Macbook pro  running Snow Leopard - 10.6.2 and would appreciate your advice.
thank you
-s

s,
Every time you close down Illy, the current preferences (which may have been changed while you worked on files) are saved, and every time you start up Illy, those preferences will be used.
Usually, preference corruption probably occurs randomly, caused by the OS, but if something in your files change the preferences to something that is not viable you will get an error like that.
You may press Cmd+Option+Shift during startup, which will replace the current preferences with the defaults, and probably you will get rid of the error message. It is probably not a cure, though.
If the error is persistent, the cure would be to get rid of the offending things in the files you work with.

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