HELP--keep getting message "the process android.process.acore has stopped unexpectedly" force close

[poe_diddley]

originally i was getting the message:

"Application data space is low. To free up....."

that started two weeks ago. Keep in mind that there is over 6 gigs of free internal space and over a  gig on my SD card. Plenty of physical space in every area of the phone possible. My phone is not rooted and I do not have a bunch of apps. No task killers, since that caused a problem before with losing text messages.

I followed some advice on this or another forum that suggested to clear the cache and data in several applications including the internet browser, mail, market, and i deleted a couple unused downloaded apps just for the heck of it. No problems for about 4 days, thought the issue was fixed.

then i got the message again "Application data space is low. To free up....." followed the same advice, and deleted a couple more apps that weren't important. still plenty of space on all drives.

a few hours later i get this message
"the process android.process.acore has stopped unexpecte--FORCE CLOSE"

this appears over and over and over and over again.

i can navigate thru the phone, and it looks like everything is on, but the message pops up repeatedly. as soon as i close it, it appears again. i have about half a second to click any button before i have to force close the message again.\

also, if i try to actually open the "phone" it goes to a white HTC screen. 

i've tried powering down, taking out battery, restarting, but it appears again.

 i don't want to lose what data i have left by doing some hardcore reset, but if that's all that will fix it.......

PLEASE HELP!!!!

[poe_diddley]

now it's stuck in a reboot loop where it gets to the "droid" screen then goes back to the white HTC screen. guess i have no choice but to do the factory reset method. awesome. so happy.