imagecache SAFE MODE Restriction error

I've read most of the safemode error issues and I can disable my hosts PHP safe mode, but that only gives me a fatal error and no site display.

I'm fairly new at drupal but have spent the last weeks to build a new site and it worked fine locally.
I got it to work online almost perfectly, only the catalog started showing safemode errors.
After putting safe mode off, I started getting these errors on every page.
I know it's a permission issue, but that is the weird thing. When I change permissions on the "imagecache" folders to 777 (using filezilla) it won't allow it and go back to 755 . I can chance the permissions on all the other folders just fine.
It also seems to have deleted the "imagecache/product_full" folder. I can still find the images, but they are in the "default/files" folder now when I try to copy them back in place I get a "permission denied" error.

Where do I start looking?

If u could just point me in the right direction, I've been searching for hours.