How might I safely stop using iCloud Drive?

[iMore Question]

Not that I'd want to necessarily, but could I ever stop using iCloud Drive safely? How could I delete all files and folders on iCloud Drive without risking them on my Mac?

While that question is unrelated to my current predicament, I'll add a bit about that, too.

My mid-2009 MacBook Pro is faltering in El Capitan; an Apple Store Genius declared the hard disk moribund, as it can no longer successfully use Time Machine. I hope to limp along until the 2016 MBPro ships, but I must have a secure alternative backup until then. I've put periodic "clones" on a 2TB peripheral disk, but I also need up-to-the-minute backups and safe off-site storage, so I've signed up for 200 GB in iCloud Drive. Whence my question about LEAVING iCloud Drive when moving to a new machine. How would I do that safely? (I also have iCloud Drive on my iPhone 5S, but I don't do much creative work in iOS.)

-- Rob

 

[Trees]

Not sure that you need to leave iCloud Drive once you have a new Mac. Did someone at the Apple Store recommend that you leave iCloud Drive once you have the new Mac?

 

[RobHS]

Trees --

Thanks for your response.

The Apple Store Genius had cited various signs of hard-disk decay when explaining why I was no longer able to back-up successfully to Time Machine.

Joe Kissel at TidBits in a very useful posting on back-up misperceptions alluded to precautions to be taken when replacing a Mac.

Actually, my concerns along this line were accentuated by iMore's excellent series of postings on iCloud Drive. So much attention was being paid to working in iCloud directly, rather than restricting iCloud Drive to its role as a mirror of shared files, I began to question my own understanding of iCloud Drive's true purpose.

-- Rob