Safe to upgrade?

I upgraded 3 system (2 MBPs to Lion, and one server to Lion and then to Lion server) and no issues on any of the systems. All data retained and the process completed flawlessly. As with any upgrade, there are always risks, so your results may vary.

 

No offense but if your data is that important then why are you even turning your machine "on" (much less upgrading) without a backup solution in place?

In this age of cheap drive solutions I find this astonishing. The upgrade to Lion is not your problem - it's that one time when things just go wrong you should worry about first.

 

I'd worry about software incompatibility before losing data. Back up and in the 1/10000 chance that something goes wrong, just restore. The only major problem I can see is that older apps' files won't be usable, and are therefore 'erased', while not physically being removed.

 

With 10.7.3 just around the corner, I'd wait until it's released before upgrading to see if it (hopefully) squashes more bugs. I'm hanging at 10.6.7 until 10.7.3 is out.

 

He was trying to give you helpful advice, so relax. You don't want to lose your data over an upgrade bug, but you're willing to lose it by running your computer on a day-to-day basis without a backup? Makes no sense to me. Lost data is lost data, no matter how it happens. You've had two external HDDs fail, and yet you're relying on your internal HDD to keep going forever with no problems. Sounds risky to me, but it's your choice.

I know many people that have upgraded to Lion, and no one has lost their data. That being said, I wouldn't even attempt it without a backup in place. There's just too many things that can happen.

 

The answer is that YOU, OP, should NOT switch to Lion.

No one recommends upgrading a system without a backup in place. Search here; there are tons of threads on backup strategies. It isn't the bugs in Lion that have caused most of the problems. It's incompatible software and the upgrade process itself. Both of which argue for a good backup.

Preferably you not only have something like TM, but also a clone or partition with your current system on it. That way if you don't like Lion or it breaks stuff or whatever you can go back easily.

No one can guarantee things won't go wrong for you; IMHO without a backup you're taking too much of a chance if your data is at all valuable.