SJT............YOU ARE A GENIUS. I booted up from safe mode and installed the update and it worked flawlessly!

i've been going back and forth with adobe for 2 weeks and they recommended to partion my hard drive which made no sense to me. glad i didnt waste time doing it.

there is an entire long thread on adobe's site in the after effects section with people that have the same problem.

SJT for president.
thanks!