There's always a risk in using beta software (but then again, there's always a risk in using any software). The whole reason it's called beta is because the company is not confident that it's got all the bugs worked out. Otherwise, it would have been released so they could start raking in the moola.
There are quite a few ways to mitigate the possibility of any beta software (not limited to VS2010 or even any programming-related product) from causing you trouble. Choose any from this list, which is by no means exhaustive:
- Don't use it on the same data (be it accounting information or source code) until you've run it in parallel and gotten the same results as with the older version.
- Plan a backout strategy if the software is so bad that it's easier to go back than to try and go forward.
- Backup your data even more frequently during the periods where you're using the beta software, up until the point that you're comfortable with it and can revert to a more normal backup strategy.
- Don't use beta software at all - wait for the real release (or SP1 if you want to be even safer). There may not be a driving force behind updating to the latest version.
- As a company, limit your exposure to the beta software to a small set of your employees. So, for example, if you have six different teams, choose the least important as a sacrificial lamb, so to speak.
My own personal preference is to wait until everyone else has sorted out the problems first. I didn't upgrade to the latest Ubuntu while it was in beta (I still got burnt a little bit with the video and X but that particular problem already had a solution on the net). I don't download the latest and greatest Eclipse until it's been in use for a few months. I'm still using VS2008 under Windows XP since there's nothing I think I need in the latest release (of VS or Windows).
We obviously have the latest and greatest OS' in our test environments but they're crash-and-burn environments that won't cause any real pain if they blow up (other than a rebuild but even that's pretty painless nowadays).
For your particular circumstance, I would probably stick with a tried and true version. You don't seem to have a pressing need for any of the new features in your question and the sort of failure you're talking about is not just losing some information at work which, while annoying, is probably backed up to the point where your career would survive.
A similar loss of your educational work would affect you for a long time if you fail your subject because of it. I would probably just concentrate on getting it finished rather than worrying about what VS2010 beta might do to my work. Don't misunderstand me, you should still be protecting your work even with VS2008 but I'd personally feel safer with that option.
Then, if you have some spare time at the end of your project (hah! as if that would happen!), you could try to convert what you've done so far to VS2010. If it all goes pear-shaped, you still have all the VS2008 stuff available.