I sent a longer reply an hour ago, but you've been temporarily spared (got a "await Moderator" email reply due to "Message contains administrivia", cool, what software is our forum on now/again? THANKS Moderator(s)). 2 new semi-concise/stage1 questions for OP/Ron: Q1: How old is computer, do you do backups, is your HardDisk still oldschool spinning platters? (if you still use an old(er) HD, I'd rethink the concept of nightly shutdown. Platter shaft grease gets old/hard -> sticky/striction HD ...may decide not to spin up someday. But a tiny hammer on the HD during powerup could revive...I'll never forget the day TWO of my NetApp HD's on a raid5 (ONE dead disk allowed to rebuild itself, not raid6 which can survive 2 dead disks. My server room had been powered off all night due to a bldg planned night of shutdown! And the backup robot my CA boss sent me, was failing to do sane backups for my MAss/work servers for past weeks on that NetApp. A revisit to server room with sm hammer, a few taps, got one stuck HD to spin, NetApp rebuilt the raid5 ! ) Q2: if "losing my personal files" is the biggest worry (shouldn't it be?), do you have your personal data on a 2nd disk of any speed, to augment an SSD for the OS ? Secondary worries of course include nuisance of having to reload OS+me if the Update Manager makes a giant mess, which (apparently never happens) || (...not to me, ever) long as linux auto-updates have existed in/on my dwindling beasts/zoo. OS magic/behind-scenes: I do believe on instinct that the Update temporary files are stashed to LOCAL HD so you can even do your finish-update bootUP with No Freaking Network up. Hope my aging gut remains right on that.