Forgetful MacBook

Having big problems with MacBook Pro (mid-2010 17", 2.53GHz Core i5) forgetting settings. Installed Lion and activated Chrome 2-step verification at around the same time and have been focussing a lot on Chrome since 2-step verification has disrupted syncing with my mobile also. Since turning off 2-step verification, now wondering if Lion is the culprit. The 'state' of my system seems permanently stuck - my Mac will not remember most changes I make to it. This includes (but is probably not restricted to):

When opening iTunes:

(yes, that is 3 times I have to enter my password into iTunes after a restart!).

• iCal will not remember any passwords to access holidays I have entered on the Google CalDAV server.
• iCal notifications come up over and over again (increasing in number as the days go by). Expired notifications will not stop appearing and I enable 'Turn off all alerts' option but, once rebooted, this option is disabled again.
• Skype will not remember my logon details.
• Changes made to the Dock. I delete uninstalled items and add new ones, when I restart, everything's back the way it was...
• When making changes in Onyx on the Parameters panel I get the following AppleScript error: '(date & time) defaults[845:f07] Could not write domain /Users/myname/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iTunes.plist; exiting (1)' and it then hangs forcing you to close Onyx and restart.
• Chrome will not remember extensions installed.
• Chrome will not remember passwords.
• Chrome will not remember logon status. Every time I open new tab it says I am not signed on (despite being signed on in the previous tab from which the new one was opened).
• Chrome will not remember my location. I have moved recently from Malaysia to UK. In every new session it detects I am in UK and asks if I wish to search with Google.UK as opposed to Google.my. I answer 'yes' and the next time I reboot it's forgotten I've said default should be UK and asks again.
• When I try saving anything in Mail I get the following message 'Writing your preferences to disk has failed. Your preferences may not have been saved. The permissions on ~/Library/Preferences may be wrong or your disk may be full.' I have 172GB free of my 500GB drive.

A weird thing happened recently. The ColorSync Utility popped up with a window called Profile First Aid. It was reporting problems so I tried to Verify and then Repair and got the following message:

/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Color/Profiles/Recommended/CoatedFOGRA27.icc

Tag 'desc': Tag size is not correct.

Tag 'desc': Description tag has a bad Macintosh string.

The file is locked. Could not be fixed.

/System/Library/CoreServices/Resources/Profiles/HD 709-A.icc

Header message digest (MD5) is missing.

The file is locked. Could not be fixed.

/System/Library/CoreServices/Resources/Profiles/SD 170M-A.icc

Header message digest (MD5) is missing.

The file is locked. Could not be fixed.

I cannot find these files to unlock them - they do not seem to exist.

I also cannot get Finder to arrange results as instructed. Bars at the top I used to be able to click to arrange by date or name are missing and it seems to randomly ignore my instructions to 'Arrange By'

I am completely updated on everything as far as I am aware (OSX 10.7.3) and have verified and repaired disk permissions in Disk Utiliy. I cannot seem to move my system past this certain 'state' it seems to have permanently memorised….

Any help or suggestions from anyone GREATLY appreciated!