What steps do i need to take to change the name of the installation folder, without doing a complete removal-reinstallation? My installation folder is currently called 'resources-directory' and i'm trying to drop the '-directory' leaving just 'resources'. I've already tried the following:

1.changing the Base Path under Configuration in admin
2.re-naming the actual folder (of course)
3.re-naming this folder : /.htpasswds/public_html/resources-directory
4.changing the path in the /admin/.htaccess file

After all this, my actual site shows up fine under /resources/directory/, but i'm getting a 404 in the admin section.

Advise me of other changes i have to make in terms of dropping the '-directory' somewhere else...

You've got it just about right..

Change the base path directory setting in admin configuration.
Rename the installation directory to what you set the base path to.
Delete the .htaccess file in your /admin directory, and re-password protect the /admin directory.

I suspect the 404 you are seeing is caused because the corresponding htpaswd file used to authenticate access to the admin directory still points to the old directory name. You may not be able to edit that file directly.