I agree on the slow and steady, unless you like doing things over again.
For your last one I've figured out fighting nature is hard, and usually unsustainable. Be it human nature, or mother nature.
I've always liked this theory, imagining the cosmos is just a series/web/tree of black holes draining into the next. Everything gets recycled eventually.
Set up a live persistent usb, i have MX on a drive with a few backup things.