I would favor this solution. In the end, it would give you a place to backup your data and get it off the machine- I don't mean just for this event, but as a backup procedure for the future as well. Getting your data off the machine is critical to any backup solution, so you should have one anyway.
I’d take a lot of the tech advice on a political board with a grain of salt. Like a lot of the singers on American Idol think they can sing a lot better than they actually can, so do computer users generally over estimate there understanding of whats going on inside that box.