First, I'd like to thank everyone who posted and offered help, solutions, experience and support. I know everyone here has gone through the same thing at least once. I have a great deal of respect for each and every one of you, and I do take your advice under consideration.
My work flow is very similar to many of the suggestions here. I do the work, save continually during the work, then save out the work to three separate locations. Two of the locations are remote, but I can't afford a cloud like Dropbox. (Hopefully, that will change in the future). I also have a fireproof safe that is the repository of my work going all the way back to '93. I do have a Windows 7 box but need to replace the CPU, which froze to death inside the house about three years ago when we went 15 degrees below zero for a week.
My preferred work flow would be to have an isolated Windows 10 work box, with a clean HD and OS that never plugs in to the net. The Windows 7 box would be dedicated to GMAX and other 32-bit platforms that work quite happily in that environment. The work from that box can be transferred to the isolated box via thumb drive, but that is still risky. For the sim I need a dedicated simulator
rock crusher that can be online. I need a third box.
I still own two of my NT boxes that I built in 2000. Both have broken HD, but I can remedy that eventually. Those boxes are great for running my plotter and other older bits of tech. It all comes down to budget for me.
I agree in principal that Win10 updates probably aren't directly responsible for breaking any components or software, but I still find it not coincidental that the HD began to spool up while I was in Photoshop with the file that became corrupted open. I saved out, while the drive was running 100% with the incoming update. Somewhere in that mix, the saved file was compressed to a single layer. I haven't been able to figure out how to get into that file and rescue the data, which is now locked inside. I hadn't backed up the file because I had been working on it all morning...with multiple saves. I had closed, the file for an hour or so, then re-opened it. Within about five minutes the system went into overdrive as the update came in. When I saved the file this time, the file was corrupted during the save.
I know it was an update because the computer went into a memory leak situation after the incoming. I re-booted the system and there was the Windows Update screen.
Knowing what I know about AI, dark web, bots, black hat hackers, white hat hackers and Microsoft' propensity for forcing updates and operating systems "by mistake"....
https://www.computerworld.com/artic...chines-specifically-set-to-block-updates.html
I come away with the resigned realization that we are not in Kansas any longer and the internet is just not a warm and fuzzy place. My consternation comes from knowing that I need to be up to date and educated in 64-bit, PBR, State-of-the-Art rendering technology if I wish to move forward with my intended development and projects. It's a conundrum. Every so often I take a direct hit and I am forced to re-evaluate the cost benefit. My wife will second that motion. She has to live with me. I am a one man show, there's no team or back up, so when things go wrong it is a big step backward.
Looking at the entire scenario in the aggregate, my observation is that we are all trying to move forward with our development and learning curve...smack dab in the middle of a digital Jerry Springer Show. It wasn't always like this, and hopefully things will change for the better as we move through this volatility towards a more balanced "Global Village"...or until the entire frickin' thing blows entirely. lol
Thanks for reading and I love every one of ya'.
